the artful mind april 2019

Promoting the Arts in the Berkshires since 1994

APRIL 2019

THE ARTFUL MIND

ANNE UNDELAND PHOTOGRAPHED BY EDWARD ACKER

CAROLYN NEWBERGER

www.carolynnewberger.com 617-877-5672 What are we Doing; Where are we Going? Mixed Media, 42 x 36 Inches 2015

THE ARTFUL MIND ARTZINE

APRIL 2019

SPRINGING FROM CANVAS TO CANVAS

LINDA KAYE-MOSES / JEWLERY DESIGNER H. CANDEE ... 8 DAVID RICCI PHOTOGRAPHY H. CANDEE ... 16 ANNE UNDELAND / ACTOR/ PLAYWRIGHT... 24 SIMEON BITTMAN FOLKLORE FOODS H. CANDEE ... 34 RICHARD BRITELL FALDONI PT 8. FICTION ...41 FICTION: THE NATURAL WORLD JUDY BERG PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL BERG ...42

Contributing Writers and Monthly Columnists Richard Britell, Carl and Judy Berg, Laura Pian Photographers: Edward Acker, Tasja Keetman Publisher Harryet P. Candee Copy Editor

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2 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

MATT CHINIAN

Open by appointment Please e-mail: mattchinian@gmail.com

1332 CARNEY-CASSIDY RD. 11-28-18 9 X 12” 1328 FLOWER, THANKSGIVING 11-21-18 12 X 9”

MY WEBSITE/BLOG: HTTP://WWW.MATTCHINIAN.COM/ INSTAGRAM:

FACEBOOK:

@MATTCHINIAN MATT CHINIAN

Open Studios of Washington County July 19 - 21, 2019 http://studiotour.org/visit-washington-county-art-studios

ART

Artful Mind Calendar of Events WILLIAMS COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART 15 LAWRENCE HALL DR, STE 2, WILLIAMSTOWN, MAJames Van Der Zee’s Forgotten Photographic Practice, Thurs APril 18, 5:30-7

510 WARREN STREET GALLERY 510 WARREN STREET, HUDSON, NY 518-822-0510 510warrenstreetgallery@gmail.com /510warrenstreetgallery.com Paintings by Kate Knapp: April in Paris, Venice and Sicily Thru April 28. Fri & Sat 12 - 6, Sun 12 - 5 or by app

WORKSHOPS DEB KOFFMAN’S ARTSPACE 137 FRONT ST, HOUSATONIC, MA • 413-274-1201 Sat: 10:30-12:45 class meets. No experience in drawing necessary, just a willingness to look deeply and watch your mind. This class is conducted in silence. Adult class. $10, please & call to register. First Tuesday of every month

aMUSE GALLERY 7 RAILROAD AVE, CHATHAM, NY • 518-392-1060 / www.amusechatham.com Through The Lens, thru Apr 28; Raw Image: Outsider art, April 25 - May 27, reception April 27, 4-7pm BERKSHIRE MUSEUM 39 SOUTH ST., PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS BERKSHIRE MUSEUM • 413-443-7171 HTTP://WWW.BERKSHIREMUSEUM.ORG/ | PITTSFIELD BerkshireNow: Pat Hogan, Feb 1- April 28 BERKSHIRE PHOTO GATHERING BERKSHIRE REGIONAL COMMUNITY CENTER GREAT BARRINGTON, MA berkshirephotogathering.com Gather and share photographs, discussion, Sun April 2, 2pm. see full schedule on website CLARK ART INSTITUTE 225 SOUTH ST, WILLIAMSTOWN, MA WWW.CLARKART.EDU/ | WILLIAMSTOWN Sat, April 20, 3pm: Exhibition on Screen: Rembrandt DOTTIE’S COFFEE LOUNGE 444 NORTH ST, PITTSFIELD, MA The Instagram Image Out of Context, thru June Exhibitors: Mike Carty, Ashley Chandler, Nina Silver, Jessica Rufo, Diane Firtell, Galen Carlson, Michael Downer, Richard Britell, Jade Roy, Jess Kin, Cassandra Redd, Garrit Baker FRONT STREET GALLERY 129 FRONT ST, HOUSATONIC, MA • 413-274-6607 Kate Knapp oils and watercolors and classes open to all.

GUILD OF BERKSHIRE ARTISTS BERKSHIRE HUMANE SOCIETY, PITTSFIELD, MA Greenwald & Emerling Reception April 25, 5:30pm HANCOCK SHAKER VILLAGE 1843 W. HOUSATONIC ST, PITTSFIELD, MA tix: 1427.blackbaudhosting.com Exhibition Opening: Borrowed Light: Barbara Ernst Prey.

Reception May 26, 5-7pm. Thru Nov 11, 2019 MASS MoCA 1040 MASSMOCA WAY, NORTH ADAMS, MA • 413-662-2111 Laurie Anderson, thru 2019; Louise Bourgeois, thru 2019 MARGUERITE BRIDE HOME STUDIO AT 46 GLORY DRIVE PITTSFIELD, MA • 413- 841-1659 or 413-442-7718 MARGEBRIDE-PAINTINGS.COM FB: MARGUERITE BRIDE WATERCOLORS NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM 9 MASSACHUSETTS 183, STOCKBRIDGE, MA Frank E. Schoonover: American Visions, Thru May 27, 2019; The Art and Wit of Rube Goldberg, April 5-June 9 6 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

SHIRO BERKSHIRES 105 STOCKBRIDGE RD, GT BARRINGTON, MA Cooking Class: Sushi April 26, 6pm Preregister 413-528-1898, $45 per person

MUSIC MARK WILSON, Q85008, DIGITAL IMAGE ON CANVAS, 2013 IMAGE COURTESY THE HOTCHKISS SCHOOL

Unstructured Structures, Mark Wilson The Hotchkiss School 11 Interlaken Rd, Lakeville, CT www.hotchkiss.org REAL EYES GALLERY 71 PARK ST, ADAMS, MA Ann M Scott, Oil & Water, thru April 28 SANDISFIELD ARTS CENTER 5 HAMMERTOWN RD, SANDISFIELD, MA sandisfieldartscenter.org Thru May 25, reception Sat April 27, 2:30 - 4pm: Capturing Light: Thad Kubis, photography. Followed by free workshop, Introduction to Smartphone/TAblet Photography, 1pm VAULT GALLERY 322 MAIN ST, GT. BARRINGTON, MA • 413-644-0221 Marilyn Kalish at work and process on view, beautiful gallery and wonderful collection of paintings

EVENTS & TALKS ART LENOX OPEN STUDIO TOURS May 4, 10-8pm: Featured artists open their studios for a behind-the-scenes look at their processes and intimate discussions about the creation of their works. Event in collaboration with the Massachusetts state-wide festival, ArtWeek. http://www.artweekma.org/ IS183 ART SCHOOL OF THE BERKSHIRES tix: www.is183.org La Bella ePunk Dine. Drink. Dance. Support art. April 27, 6pm at Race Brook Lodge, 865 South Undermountain Rd, Rte. 41, Sheffield, MA PARADISE CITY ARTS FESTIVAL NORTHAMPTON’S 3 COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS, ON OLD FERRY ROAD OFF RT. 9. FROM THE MASS PIKE, TAKE EXIT 4 TO I91 NORTH, EXIT 19 www.paradisecityarts.com / 800-511-9725.

May 25, 26 & 27- curated collection of hundreds of artists and fine craft makers from every corner of the country. It’s three great days of astounding visual arts, eye-popping design, scrumptious food and, of course, great fun!

BERKSHIRE VOICES ST. JAMES PLACE 352 MAIN ST, GT BARRINGTON, MA • SAINTJAMESPLACE.NET — TICKETS 5 original short plays, Sat May 4, 2pm BRIGHT IDEAS BREWING BREWERY / PUB 111 MASS MOCA WAY, NORTH ADAMS, MA BRIGHTIDEASBREWING.COM • 413-346-4460 Not My Sister, Tues April 23, 6pm CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC THE MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER GT. BARRINGTON, MA • 413-528-0100 / CEWM.ORG April 28: Tamar Muskal; May 18: Escher String Quartet; June 8: GALA: Like Father-In-Law, Like Son-In-Law Antonin Dvorak and Josef Suk THE STATIONARY FACTORY 63 FLANSBURG AVE, DALTON, MA Livingston Taylor, Sat Apr 20, 7:30pm

THEATER BERKSHIRE THEATRE GROUP THE COLONIAL THEATRE, PITTSFIELD, MA Catch the Fever: An Evening with Fabrizio and the Fever: Send Children to BTG PLAYS! Summer Camp through the Richie duPont Scholarship Fund with Special Guest, Carl Wockner at Friday, May 17 at 7pm. VIP Tickets: $50 (includes premium seating, 6pm Pre-Show Reception in the Garage with complimentary refreshments, Fabrizio and the Fever meet and greet and signed event poster) Tickets: A: $25 B: $15 GHENT PLAYHOUSE 6 Town Hall Place, Ghent, NY • 518-392-6264 “A View From The Bridge”, April 5 - April 14, 2019 SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY 70 KEMBLE ST, LENOX, MA / WWW.SHAKESPEARE.ORG The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Tina Packer, May 23-July 14 ARTFULMIND@YAHOO.COM Please submitt your calendar listing by the 10th of each month prior to pbulication.

Images are accepted.

MARK MELLINGER / TRANSPARENT WASHES

TRIPTYCK

MARK MELLENGER DESIGNS BY JENNIFER Awarded Best Of Houzz 2019 Designs by Jennifer Owen of Great Barrington, MA has won “Best Of Service Award” on Houzz®, the leading platform for home renovation and design. The boutique interior design studio was chosen by the more than 40 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community from among more than 2.1 million active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals.

Congrats!

Recognized as a fabric guru with an eye for color, Jennifer has achieved accolades for her unique sense of style and vision. She has been featured on the cover of House to Home, Lifestyle Magazine of Fairfield County, featuring a home in Westport; East Coast Home Design Magazine; Shippan Designer Show House, (benefiting Stamford Museum and Nature Center); Weston Designer Show House benefiting Connecticut Humane Society. They feature her definitive style of design, transforming spaces to uplifting, functional environments, “simple elegance” at its best!

A native of the West Midlands England, Jennifer grew up with a mother who was a passionate knitter and a talented seamstress, with a love to decorate and a relish for fabrics and yarns. This led to many inspiring visits with her to the fabric market.

Hence Jennifer’s passion!

Her client base extends to Fairfield County, CT, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and Berkshire County. Jennifer has a showroom and office based on Railroad Street in Great Barrington, MA. Jennifer is a member of IDS (Interior Design Society), with extensive training in interior design, IDPC (Interior Design Protection Council), member of Better Business Bureau, Metropolitan Museum, NYC, Museum of Natural History, NYC, Museum of Modern Art, NYC, member of Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, member of Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, and a member of A Women’s Creation Circle in Berkshire County.

Designs by Jennifer, LLC - 6 Railroad Street, STE 17, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Office: 413528-5200; Cell: 203-253-3647; www.designsbyjenniferowen.com

NOHO M55 gallery 530 W 25th St NYC room #408

June 25–July 13, 2019 I live in two separate worlds. One verbal and one visual. What they have in common is an attitude of pushing into the unknown; of allowing unconscious elements to take form within consciousness. I couldn’t live without both.

Art came first, but after a while I began to feel selfindulgent and isolated. I wanted to address problems of mans’ impact on the environment. I went through careers in art, photography, carpentry, ecology and microbiology before landing in psychology at 30. 10 years ago, when we found a loft in Pittsfield, I returned to my first love, art. It’s not like riding a bicycle. I had to start from scratch. I feel I’m just now catching up to where I left off 50 years ago.

I’m not satisfied with a piece for a long time. I’ll put it away and work on something else. I’ll look at it upside down and in a mirror, trying to get a handle on what’s wrong. It’s a very solitary meditation. I might gesso over everything except some small bits that are working; then start over from those. The viewer completes the process. It’s a collaboration.

It’s a thrill when someone “gets” a piece, but I’m OK when they don’t. The connection with the viewer should be as rare and special as marriage.

Mark Mellinger can be reached at markmellinger680@gmail.com / markmellingerart.com / 914-260-7413

PORTRAIT OF JOAN GRISWOLD FOR WEBSITE USE

berkshire digital | collins editions Opening in 2005, we do fine art printing for artists, photographers and anyone needing our services. These Giclée prints, can be made in many different sizes from 5”x7” to 42” x 80” on archival papers.

In addition to the printing services, we create accurate photo-reproductions of paintings and illustrations, and can have client’s film scanned into digital files, for use in books, magazines, brochures, cards and websites. We also offer restoration and repair of damaged or faded photographs. A complete overview of services offered, along with pricing, can be seen on the web at www.BerkshireDigital.com A newly added service, is photographic portraits of artists in their studios, or wherever they would like, for use in magazines, as the author’s picture in a book, websites or cards. See samples of artist portraits on the website at www.BerkshireDigital.com The owner, Fred Collins, has been a commercial and fine art photographer for over 30 years having had studios in Boston and Stamford. He offers over 25 years of experience with Photoshop™ enabling retouching, restoration and enhancement to prints and digital files. The studio is located in Mt Washington but drop-off and pick-up is available through Frames On Wheels, located at 84 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, MA (413) 528-0997.

Reach the Studio: (413) 644-9663, or go online to www.BerkshireDigital.com

OTIS ARTS FESTIVAL The Otis Cultural Council invites Local Artists and Craftspeople to join in this fantastic indoor event to display and sell their artwork ENTRY FEE IS $20 FOR OTIS RESIDENTS, $25 FOR NON-OTIS RESIDENTS Check payable to: Otis Cultural Council Must be submitted with application, available online at: www.townofotisma.com/culturalcouncil

For information: email culturalco.otis@yahoo.com or call 413-269-4674 Deadline for applications, July 3, 2019.

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 7

LINDA KAYE-MOSES ROCEPOLATE Neckpiece Fine and Sterling Silver, 18k gold, sunstone, tanzanite, ammolite, apatite, opal, steatite, coleoptera buprestidae (Jewel Beetle), vitreous enamel Photography: Evan J. Soldinger

LINDA KAYE-MOSES JEWELRY DESIGNER Interview by H. Candee

Harryet Candee: Like so many ‘wearable’ art venues that exist, such as the Tattoo and clothing, your vision via jewelry is similar in many ways, and dissimilar as well. How would you describe your art form?

Linda Kaye-Moses: I have always felt that jewels transform the wearer allowing that person to transcend who they are, to become altered. More about that later.

Tattoos, clothing choices, and jewelry are all, when looked at beyond necessities, attempts to make us recognizable, different from other people, solely ourselves as we alone define ourselves, and perhaps something beyond ourselves.

If we look at how the earliest humans (and not solely confined to human beings) began to adorn themselves, what we would see is the use of plants to embellish and define who they were, with flowers, stems, leaves, branches, woven together, draped, or simply braided into hair or wrapped around bodies.

This continues into contemporary societies all around the world, In some African cultures today this concept is much the same as in earlier times, with the in8 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

Photography by Evan J. Soldinger

tention to make clear, with the use of plant materials, who each individual really is, to transform each person into who they choose to be, by what material is chosen. In western cultures it is much the same, though often not quite as dramatic. We carry bouquets and wear corsages or boutonnieres to define ourselves ritually for special occasions.

The next step in that process is the tattoo, which graphically illustrates the nature of the person within the decorated skin. In New Zealand, for example (where the tattoos are actually carved into the skin), the images represent the entire genealogy of the person, plus the accomplishments of that person as well.

Japanese tattoos, decoratively covering the entire body, and again creating a visual reminder of who the person is or intends to be, have inspired an explosion of remarkable tats worldwide. The questions being asked are, who have I been, who am I, who do I want to be, and how do I want the world to see me.

Tats are one more way for humans to step beyond who they are, to differentiate between who they are and who other humans are, to transcend the moment, to become.

Its pretty obvious how clothing is simply the very next step. It’s easy to understand the mad dash to wear what reminds ourselves and others who we really are, without having to explain it to everyone we meet. All of the above, clothing, tattoos, adornment are the archetypal methods we speak of ourselves to the world.

Jewelry, of course, is the next step, the next approach to sharing who we are with others, the next method for transforming ourselves. Aldous Huxley noted that human beings are drawn to the transformative quality of stained glass windows, fireworks, and gemstones. It is the possibility of that transformation that I hope to bring to the wearer of my jewels. Jewels are the costumes in which we can materially transcend ourselves.

Implicit in my jewels is a narrative quality, allowing them to speak with my voice and be heard by those who will wear them, but my jewels must also reflect a delight in the body-embellished, adornment, with a focus on their wearability.

How many hours does one piece, such as Aston-

LINDA KAYE-MOSES YOU TRIED TO BURY US; YOU FORGOT WE WERE SEEDS Neckpiece Fine and Sterling Silver, 18k Gold, dendritic agate, boulder opal, amethyst, lavender chalcedony, aquamarine, vitreous enamels Photography: Evan J. Soldinger

“The neckpiece began with a large oval Dendritic Agate (from Rare Earth Mining Company). The image of the dendrites referenced a tree in Winter, and reflected my feelings about the political situation in America, with the values of our country so severely compromised, appearing to have died. So the neckpiece would be about the reinvigoration of life. I had heard a quotation from Mexico (you may have read it here), “You tried to bury us. You forgot we were seeds” and I wanted the piece to be about that, with the intention of using that as the title of the piece.”

ishing Vistas necklace, take to complete?

Linda: This is a question that many of my collectors have asked about my jewels over the forty-plus years I’ve been making them, and it’s a question that can be answered several ways. The easiest answer is, “All my life”. Part of the reason for this answer is that everything I have seen (and heard, and smelled, etc.) over the course of those years has been learned/stored and, when needed in the midst of making my jewels, is accessed and brought to bear on each current piece.

As a primarily self-taught studio jeweler, I have also taken a number of workshops and a brief introductory jewelry making class (1976). Of course, I do pick and choose what to use, but that ‘library’ of images and techniques is available to bring to each piece. So the easy answer is, each piece takes forty years.

The other answer is all about numbers, which I’m guessing you may really be asking. It’s interesting that you ask about Astonishing Vistas, because that piece has an interesting history. Around 2004 I began to write, on a computer, about why and how I became a jeweler; a memoire. So many of my students,

friends, and family members had asked those questions, and I thought it might be good for me to figure it out myself. In 2010, when I was done writing my answers, I realized that I wanted to hand write the entire book and include illuminated letters for each chapter. The next step was to self-publish it. Many of my collectors who purchased the book pointed out to me that my drawings resembled jewelry and suggested that I make those pieces. In 2015, I selected ten of the drawings and made ten pendants. Astonishing Vistas was one of those pendants. So, how long did it take to make that pendant? You could say that it took from 2010 to 2015, and it would be the correct answer.

To be even more specific, it takes be about a week to make a ring or a pair of earrings. To make my major neckpieces it takes on average a month, from concept development to fabrication.

We can see that your process is complex. I sense something else that steps forward; something preflight before physically making the piece of jewelry. Thoughts?

Linda: For the neckpieces, I generally have a concept in place before beginning to work. They may be based on botanical or biological specimens (for example: Acilius; Pied Alongé, which is based on a microscopic image of a Diving Beetle’s foot), or they may have been inspired by political events (for example: You Tried to Bury Us; You Forgot We Were Seeds, which was made after the 2016 election).

Many times it is a specific technique or a desire to use specific materials that compels me to make a piece (for example: And Then She Flew and Rocepolate). Often it is a combination of the above (for example: Vashti Dreams).

What are you preparing to bring to the Paradise City Arts Festival this spring?

Linda: When I do a show, I bring everything I have made, so for this upcoming show I will bringing over sixty pieces. This includes rings, earrings, jewels and some jewels-plus-enclosures.

It must be a wonderful feeling when you spot Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 9

LINDA KAYE-MOSES VASHTI DREAMS neckpiece, enclosure, unbound book and poem Sterling and Fine silver, 14k gold, cuprite, lapis lazuli, gem chrysocolla, amethyst, garnet, emerald beads, copper, wood, amber, linen, paint, varnish, 14k gold leaf, polymer

didn’t know her, and realized she had purchased the brooch at a gallery that at the time was representing me. We laughed about the incident and went on our way. Clearly I don’t know everyone who has collected my jewels (LOL). That was at a time when I was working with galleries, which I do not currently do. Now I meet and know all my collectors at juried shows and have grown quite fond of them.

jewels from those nails.

My first thought was how pleased I was that she wanted to display them. My second thought was that I could do better, and so began my process for providing, as you ask, sanctuaries for some of my pieces.

Though most of my jewels do stand alone, I do occasionally join them to elements (enclosures, original poems, small books) that reflect the theme the jewels express. My intention with these enclosures is to allow the jewels to be safely displayed in a manner that is in harmony with the look and the theme of the piece (For example: Dreamdance in Blue). Each of these jewels has its roots in a theme or poses a question that the jewels-plus-enclosures answers.

The enclosures also reflect my interest in encased objects of antiquity (caves, caches, treasure chests), leading to these protected environments for the jewels.

Explain about the Enclosures, or as you also call them, nesting cases. Do they house the jewelry pieces, like a sanctuary? How did you first come up with the idea?

Linda: Many years ago, one of my collectors mentioned that she never wanted to put my jewels away, so she hammered nails into the wall and hung all the

UNRULY, please explain.

Linda: To describe why I define my work as unruly, it is necessary to first describe what they are not.

There are many kinds of jewelry designs which seem cold and impersonal, static. There are also styles that incorporate an inordinate quantity of gemstones, where sparkle and pizazz distract from form or nar-

Photography: Evan J. Soldinger

someone in a crowd, (maybe like on the lawn at Tanglewood) wearing one of your necklaces.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if the face wearing it was super serious famous!? Do you know everyone that buys your jewelry?

Linda: Awhile ago the sister of a famous vocalist from the Sixties, someone who I had admired, bought many pairs of my earrings for her sister. That truly pleased me. That’s the only well-known person I’m aware of who has owned and worn my work. I did run into a stranger on Broadway on the upper west side of Manhattan, many years ago, who was wearing a brooch I had made. I got so excited seeing it as she walked towards me, that I ran up to her, pointed at the jewel, and said, without thinking, “That’s mine!”

Of course, she replied, “No it isn’t. It’s mine!” I 10 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

LINDA KAYE-MOSES DREAMDANCE IN BLUE Neckpiece, Nesting Case sterling and fine silver, 14k gold, bronze, lapis lazuli, quartz, blue moonstone, boulder opal, uncut Montana sapphire, freshwater pearl, phantom quartz, vitreous enamel, found object (enclosure, watch lens), paint Photography: Evan J. Soldinger

“In our deepest sleep we dance our dreams, describing a path to ourselves. Each dream dance moves us closer to our heart’s mysteries.

Dream a little dream of me, me, me.”

rative. There are also contemporary jewels that are simply not wearable. Not my thing. Hence, I refer to my jewels as unruly, with an emphasis on mystery, history, narrative, and wearability. Unruly, in the sense that they open a very narrow door into my work, accessible to those who are able to step into my world.

Additionally, being self-taught, I’m not always certain of what the rules are. If the pieces hang together, both structurally and visually, then, despite what the rules might have, they work for me.

Have you noticed a pattern in the kinds of people that are drawn to your work?

Linda: I have tried to identify the next collector, as people stop at my booth at shows, and look at the work, but I have never been able to do so. One customer who bought her first major piece from us stated, “This is going to knock their socks off at IBM.” Totally unexpected response. Another who owns many of my jewels incorporated them into her costumes for the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Another was a costume designer for the movie industry. And another is a lawyer specializing in criminal law. There was absolutely no way to to identify them as customers prior to their trying on my work and making a purchase. The thread that seems to bind

them together is an appreciation for jewels that stand outside the readily accessible.

to sense with our five senses, and suspect that all gemstones do emit those energies.

Do you ever listen to your own folk music on a CD while buys working on jewelry pieces in your studio?

Linda: Although I performed many years ago, as a folk singer, I never recorded my performances. I do listen to an eclectic mix of music in the studio when working, from ethnic, folk, bluegrass, klezmer, jazz, cinema, musicals to classical. I recently noticed that when I’m in the design phase of my work, I select calm, slow-paced music, primarily classical. When I’m into the fabrication phase, I choose more animated music, in every genre.

It’s my sense that music opens creative doors that I might not notice without it. Sometimes in the studio, I just have to get up and dance.

What is your favorite stone? And, why?

Linda: If I had a choice, I would only work with Australian Boulder Opals, because their range of color can be so spectacular. I am a colorist, and as such, I have always been guided by the beauty of gemstones. Around twenty years ago, I began to tentatively incorporate the use of fired vitreous enamels in my pieces, finding a new way to bring luminous color to my work. The most recent iterations of my work are rich with the use of these transparent enamels on fine silver. My work became an all-consuming collaboration between me, the gems, and the colors of enamels, driving me in the direction I want to take and the techniques I want to pursue.

Lets get into the material you use. Do you believe in the potency of stones?

Linda: I have not subscribed to the concept of stones emitting energies that cause specific bodily or spiritual responses. However, I have observed that my collectors are drawn to specific stones; that is, they respond to the gems with very consistent choices. I do know that there are energies that we are not able

As for the metal you use, have you ever felt that you were an alchemist? This sounds funny, but, when you use silver, does it almost look and maybe change into something else?

Linda: Many people misunderstand one historical purpose of alchemy, to convert base metal to pure gold, and which was considered to be a spiritual quest.

Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 11

Linda: As a self-taught jeweler I tend to absorb new techniques wholesale, many times without considering their intricacies; I’m learning at the bench without a safety net. I’m not sure that qualifies as thinking outside the box, but I do know that I have, by necessity, discovered ways to make my work, uncovering processes that I did not find in any book or workshop.

The world of Color! If you had to use only three colors —no matter what, which colors would you choose? Are there any colors you veer away from?

Some colors are good for some things but no other things. I use very little yellow. I don’t know why!

What’s your theory on the use of color?

Linda: Faves: Purple, red, teal. Not so much: Orange, bright green, royal blue. However, you would find that, in my jewels, each of which combines gemstones in many colors, I will use amethyst, with grossular garnets (which are orange) or citrine; or Cuprite (bright red) with lapis lazuli (royal blue) or tanzanite. And, of course opals with anything. Ask a painter or weaver and the answer will be similar. . . that the colors interact, becoming something new.

LINDA KAYE-MOSES ACILIUS (PIED ALONGÉ) Neckpiece Fine and Sterling Silver, 18k gold, vitreous enamel, tourmaline, beryl, spessartite garnet, topaz, watermelon garnet, sunstone, lavender chalcedony, watermelon tourmaline, cobalto dolomite, zircon, spinel, ruby Photography: Evan J. Soldinger

But, if I were to define the word ‘alchemy’ loosely, there is a quality to making j jewels (and all art I suspect) that approaches something akin to alchemy; a seemingly magical process of transformation. When I receive my materials from a supplier, the metal is in sheet form or, in the case of metal clay, in a puttylike lump; the solder is just a length of wire; the enamels look like colored powders; and the stones, though finished, are awaiting a framework or setting.

From the moment I begin to work with these materials, I have often felt an inexpressible surge, through my eyes and hands, that is apart from me, 12 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

becoming a part of me, on the way to transforming those materials into an entirely new objet on the planet.

As I work at my bench, I am unearthing an artifact buried in the materials, waiting for my hands and tools to shape metal and stone into jewels. The pieces are present before my hands begin to manipulate the materials, and all I need do is remove the extraneous material for the jewel to appear.

What rules have you created for yourself that break tradition in the jewelry making field?

Teaching your jewelry ideas and craft to students must be gratifying, and also exhausting. Can all the students you teach keep up with what you give them?

Linda: Teaching is exhausting, and that is the only reason I have retired from teaching workshops, after having taught them for twenty-odd years.

It was a wonderful run. I taught my students to watch and listen and then ask questions. I taught them that they had the power to do what was being asked of them. I never taught a workshop that was limited to an advanced level student. I always taught all levels at once, and those students who needed extra help got it without question. The classes were project-oriented and every student was able to complete the projects I taught.

I found that teaching gave me the opportunity to learn from my students, not about making jewelry, but about why they wanted to make jewelry, what compelled them. And, as it turned out, their reasons were similar to mine. . . to make adornment that would transform them, both in the process of making it and in the process of wearing it.

Do you ever run out of ideas?

Linda: All of my pieces are one-offs, unique and that’s what keeps my creativity sparkling. Eighteen years ago, when I was making production jewelry for wholesale buyers (in addition to my one-off jewels), I did my best to make each piece unique, but they were repetitive, and I felt like I was slogging through thick fog just to complete orders. Now, everything I make is new and fresh and has never been seen before on my bench or on the planet. I have more ideas waiting in the heart of my heart than I can finish in my lifetime and have never felt a blocked. I do constantly expose my heart to sources other than my own, most frequently my rich jewelry (and other art) library, and museums, galleries, theater, etc.

If commissioned to do wedding rings, what do you first take into consideration?

Linda: Although I have made wedding rings, I have not made many, since my metal of preference is silver, and most people want gold. However, when I

LINDA KAYE-MOSES FIORE DI PERLA ROSA Neckpiece Sterling silver, fine silver, 18k gold, lava cameo, rose quartz, pearls, labradorite Photography: Evan J. Soldinger Private Collection

LINDA KAYE-MOSES ARIAMUARA Neckpiece Sterling and Fine Silver, 18k gold, vitreous enamel, tourmaline, opal (Aust. and Peruvian), pearls, carnelian Photography: Evan J. Soldinger Private Collection

have made wedding rings, I asked the couples to compile a list of their interests, what they love, what they love to do, what art forms/genres they prefer, what colors they love, etc. Anyone who has invited me to make their rings, knows that I only work in silver and gemstones other than diamonds (not fond of diamonds at all).

What is most satisfying about your art making?

Linda: In my studio I get to play with metal and color, which by itself is delightful, but in addition to being a colorist, I absolutely love tools, well-made tools, tools designed to do the job they are supposed to do, tools that make it possible to make my work.

I love that I get to use the tools in my studio and that they assist me in my tasks as I make my work.

I am most engaged in what happens when my pieces are worn, flaunted, displayed on a person, as opposed to being exhibited in a vitrine, and jewels, naturally, are enlivened by being worn.

Is there anything you wish to create with jewelry despite knowing of challenging limitations involved?

Linda: What has most survived from antiquity is jewelry. Granted that jewelry is primarily what has been found in tombs, but my point is that jewelry survives the march of the ages. I don’t want to achieve immortality, by living forever; I want to achieve immorality by having my jewels worn forever. Too much to ask? How about this. . . I want to keep making jewelry, until my eyes can no longer see the mistakes my hands make.

Do you have a wish?

Linda: Working as studio jeweler for over four decades, my art continues to evolve as I more deeply explore arenas where I have not previously worked.

I want to punctuate the equilibrium of my work, and achieve more of a revolution than an evolution.

What in this lifetime are you most grateful?

Linda: What am I most grateful for? That I’m still dancing above the grass. That the world is always turning towards the morning (thank you Gordon Bok). That I am surrounded by loving family and friends, who I cherish in return. That I am still making my work.

PARADISE CITY ARTS FESTIVAL May 25, 26, and 27, 2019 Memorial Day Weekend, Northampton, MA

What do you believe?

Linda: Gravity, centrifugal force, solar flares, tidal energy, forests, wind, life.

SEE YOU AT—

PARADISECITYARTS.COM THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 13

ELEANOR LORD

ELEANORLORD.COM

TRIPTYCH

TRANSPARENT WASHES

MARK MELLINGER

NOHO M55 gallery 530 W 25th St NYC room #408 June 25–July 13, 2019 100 North St Pittsfield Painting - Collage - Construction 914. 260. 7413 markmellingerart.com markmellinger680@gmail.com 14 •THE ARFUL MIND APRIL 2019

Ghetta Hirsch Oil Landscapes

aMuse Gallery presents

Raw Vision featuring work by outsider artists Joel Schiller, Jody Schoenfeld, Kelly Moore Exhibition dates: April 25‐ May 27, 2019

Opening Reception: Saturday April 27, 4‐7PM

REACHING OVER

11” X14”

ZARATHUSTRA BY JOEL SCHILLER

aMuse Gallery website: ghetta-hirsch.squarespace.com instagram: @ghettahirschpaintings

Gallery Hours: Thursday thru Saturday 11am‐5pm, Sunday 12‐4pm 7 Railroad Avenue‐ Chatham NY (Just across the tracks from the clocktower) 518‐392‐1060 amusechatham.com

FRONT ST. GALLERY

Leslee Carsewell Visual Artist Painting/Collage/Photography

Kate Knapp 510 Warren Street Gallery: April in Paris, Venice and Sicily through April 28, 2019 Painting classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1pm at the studio in Housatonic and Thursday mornings 10am - 1pm out in the field.

Also available for private critiques. Open to all. Please come paint with us! gallery hours: open by chance and by appointment anytime 413. 274. 6607 (gallery) 413. 429. 7141 (cell) 413. 528. 9546 (home) www.kateknappartist.com

Front Street, Housatonic, MA

Now Showing April 2019 510 Warren Street Gallery 510 WARREN STREET HUDSON NY 12534 FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NOON - 6 SUNDAY NOON - 5 THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 15

DAIVD RICCI PRECISION

DAVID RICCI PHOTOGRAPHY INTERVIEW BY H. CANDEE

Give us a little of your history and background?

David Ricci: I was born and raised right here in The Berkshires, in Pittsfield. After graduating from Pittsfield High School, I went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY where I earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering. After a brief career in that field I left to pursue my budding interest in photography and art, returned to The Berkshires, and have lived here ever since.

In the early eighties I traveled the country selling my prints at art festivals but as the work matured and I tired of the travel, I started working with galleries and museums for exhibitions. While I’ve worked in many different fields over the years to help support myself and my family, photography has been my passion for more than four decades.

The loves of my life are my marvelous twin daughters, Nina and Eva, who will be graduating from col16 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

lege in May and my beautiful, incredibly supportive partner (and my personal photo editor), Lori Warner, Why photography? What does it give you that other art media do not?

David: My mother was an amateur painter which was probably a factor in my interest in drawing that I developed in my tween years. Problem was I wasn’t very good at it! My first exposure to photography was at the very end of graduate school when I came across a group exhibition of the RPI camera club. I don’t recall any specific images that spoke to me, but this medium in which one “draws with light” piqued my interest.

Here was a medium that did not require any manual dexterity. The more I studied photography the more intrigued I became with its possibilities for personal expression. After a year working as an engineer I had saved enough money to buy my first Nikon. A year

later I quit my job and embarked on a 100-day trek throughout the US and Canada taking photographs.

I’ve been hooked ever since.

Presently your work is hanging at Bernay Fine Arts Gallery in Great Barrington. What works of art are you showing, and why were those in particular chosen?

David: The photographs were selected by the gallerists, Lou Friedman and his sister Paula. I think they’ve chosen pieces that are representative of my work over the last several years. Some of them can be seen on these pages. Their father, painter Warner Friedman, who has been a supporter and collector of my work over the years, initiated my connection with Bernay Fine Arts.

Tell us a bit about how your work has evolved over

DAVID RICCI ENGINE BLOCKS

the years?

David: In my first serious project I photographed architectural subjects and worked in a sparse, formalist vein, trying to perfect “good” photographic composition – move in close, crop tightly, eliminate superfluous objects from the field of view. I liked the work I was doing but I wanted to develop a more personal approach to making photographs.

My attention shifted to abandoned manmade landscapes and scenes that had a stronger narrative which led me to switch from primarily using telephoto lenses (which have a small viewing angle) to wider angle lenses. This allowed me to include more physical space and consequently a greater number of visual elements in the frame.

As a child and into my teens math and science were of more interest to me than photography or art. Geometry in particular spoke to me. I found its purity, elegance, and its progression from a few basic axioms to thousands of intricate proofs compelling. While never consciously trying to incorporate geometry into my photographs, basic shapes worked their way into the

earliest images, and in later projects a more intricate underlying geometric order anchors the work.

You are publishing a book of your photographs titled Edge of Chaos which is organized into chapters titled Elements, Emergence, Fission, Fusion, Strings and Entanglement. What can you tell us about this project?

David: Complexity Science is the field of study that investigates what occurs when large numbers of individual elements coalesce. As more components are added, at a point bordering on chaos, something new materializes that is not just complicated but rather an entirely new entity that is both greater than the sum of its parts and essentially different from them. The building blocks can be molecules combining to form cells which in turn result in the emergence of life, neurons forming brains that give birth to thought, people creating families bringing forth civilizations. Such wonders as life, mind and culture are made possible by an equilibrium between order and disorder and they arise in a magical region - the “edge of chaos”.

After making photographs for several years I recognized a relationship between this concept and the direction my work was headed. I don’t intentionally try to emulate the scientific model in my work, but I feel a strong connection to the idea.

This concept provides the overarching theme for the book which includes work from several portfolios developed over nearly four decades.

The chapter names are taken from the world of quantum physics and provide a framework for structuring the book.

What did you learn from this book project?

David: A lot! I won a small grant from a photography organization called The Luminous Landscape which provided the seed money for developing the book. I used the grant funds to do three things: attend a photobook workshop in Brooklyn with Magnum photog rapher David Alan Harvey, purchase several books on the history and making of photobooks, and hire Larry Chernicoff from Windhorse Communications Design Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 17

DAVID RICCI WHICH WINCH

to work with me on the design. As the project developed, I soon learned that designing and developing a photobook is quite different from putting together an exhibition in a gallery or museum. Decisions on dimensions, typeface, font size, structure, layouts, sequencing, text and so on were made and changed many times over. Designing the cover was a project in itself! One of the major takeaways from the workshop was that the image sequence should not be developed digitally, on a monitor. That proved to be sage advice. I made well over a hundred 8x10 prints, laid them out on several workbenches in my studio, and literally spent months playing with the sequences and groupings.

The first section of the book, Elements, presents your early work which lends itself to a minimalist pallet. It works well altogether as one body of work, but if you take one photograph and separate it from the others it can actually fool the eye and appear as not a photograph, but as a paint18 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

ing. Put back together as a group, the architectural angles and tension between shapes is somewhat a dizzying experience. Can you tell us what you have done here and what was the inspiration that set things in motion?

David: In my twenties I developed an interest in modern and contemporary art and spent countless hours poring over art history books and visiting museums. I recall a trip I made to MoMA in New York to see a photography exhibition. After working my way through the show, I wandered through the other galleries and found myself spending a lot more time looking at paintings by Bonnard, Rothko, De Kooning and Estes than I had spent with the photographs

by Weston, Eggleston and Arbus. There was a large Pollock painting - I think it was “Blue Poles” - that particularly grabbed my attention. I spent twenty minutes or so looking at it up close, then back several feet and then even further away and from various angles. I explored the rest of MoMA and returned once again to view and think about the

paintings.

However, that experience did not compel me to sell my Nikon and turn to oil paint and brushes.

Rather, it made me think about photography in a different way. I did not want to make photographs that “look like paintings” but I was inspired to produce images that hold the viewer’s interest, reveal themselves over time, and reward repeated viewings.

In your series Emergence there is a stillness, a lost world that has been left for you to document.

Tell us about this project.

David: For nearly a decade I photographed amusement parks, outdoor sports facilities and other recreational sites throughout America. Initially focusing on the physical structures of the attractions, I was soon drawn to the kitschy man-made landscape when the people were gone. These sites call out for crowds, so when they are abandoned they feel a bit surreal and there is often no central point of interest in the scene. Despite the absence of people, their

DAVID RICCI DEPARTURE

presence is still felt. This theme of human presence in peopleless environments reappears in more recent images of dismantled factories, demolished buildings and deserted fishing piers.

Randomness and repetition play together and a part of the elements on our planet. They are used by you as a major theme through most of your photography work. Why did you want to work with this scientific theme, and how did you first discover it?

David: Well, you’ve asked a question that speaks to the core of the book. Much of my work includes banal subject matter and haphazard scenes – scrap metal heaps, piles of brush, scattered fishing gear.

To make the composition work I try to position the camera in a manner that makes use of visual motifs – repeated shapes, colors and patterns that add rhythm and gesture to the composition.

Many people do not have a clue what goes into

making a photographic print. It is a science and mystery, mind-boggling as well. Can you tell us a little about your process and means to an end on making a fine art print?

David: These days photographs are viewed on screens much more frequently than as prints on a wall which is a very different way to engage with them. I have an Instagram account to see what others are posting, to promote my book and post new work, but, with the exception of the early pieces, the photographs in Edge of Chaos are “anti-Instagram” since many of them are very complex and the detail is of utmost importance. Several are printed quite large – around 48x60”. Viewing a print that size in a well-lighted gallery is a very different experience than looking at the image on an iPhone.

Early in my career I made all of my prints up to twenty by twenty-four inches using a process called Cibachrome or, later, Ilfochrome, but I had to turn to professional labs when I decided to go larger.

Fortunately, I have been able to work with some

fine labs to get the look I want. Advances in digital technology have made color matching much easier than it used to be. My new work lends itself to smaller prints, so I have returned to doing my own printing.

What parts of your process use digital and what parts are from the old school of training in photography?

David: At the beginning of my career I shot 35-mm film and made prints in the traditional fashion with an enlarger in a darkroom. After a few years I switched to medium format film and have done some work with a 4x5” view camera. My entry to the digital world happened in two phases. It took a while for digital cameras to catch up with the resolution of medium format film, so my first step into the digital world was film scanning. Those scans were primarily done at NancyScans in Chatham, New York on their Heidelberg Tango drum scanner which produces digContinued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 19

DAVID RICCI OLIVIA RAFAEL

ital files with a truly remarkable level of detail. I use Photoshop to tweak the image, prepare it for printing and, depending on the size, either print it myself or send it to a professional lab. About 5 years ago I finally purchased a Nikon DSLR and went “all digital”.

What photos have you taken from within Berkshire County that demonstrate the “Edge of Chaos” theme of your work?

David: There is a chapter in the book titled “Fission”, a term that, at the quantum level, refers to splitting the atom and the release of enormous amounts of energy. The images in this section capture a different type of breaking apart - the destruction of man-made structures by demolition, dismantling or natural disaster. Several of the photographs in Fission were taken in Pittsfield including the razing of England Brothers Department Store and the disassembling of the A.H. Rice Silk Mill.

Another part of Edge of Chaos called “Strings” refers to string theory and features images of brush 20 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

and thickets taken primarily in Pittsfield and Kennedy Park in Lenox.

Have you any new ideas you will be exploring over the next year that you can tell us about?

David: Yes. I have two ongoing projects that I’m excited about because both are major departures from my work of the past few decades.

One body of work is titled “A Curious Lexicon”.

These pieces examine how photographs and text effect each other, the authority we attribute to our sources of information, and the growing influence of the Internet.

My process begins by discovering a peculiar, intriguing object or scene and making a photograph that stands on its own, unassociated with other images. Having taken the photograph myself, I’m totally aware of its context – I know where, when, and the circumstances in which it was taken. But I’m interested in exploring how the photograph can take on different meanings by using a caption that changes the context and steers the viewer/reader in a different direction. Taking cues from the image, I

think about other meanings the photograph could have, make a list of words or phrases that come to mind and enter them as keywords on Wikipedia and Wiktionary. Then I pore over the results to see if there is text that I think will work well with the photograph. This process is often repeated several times until I find a good fit. In some cases the text is used verbatim, while in other instances I combine and/or edit passages to compose the final wording that is paired with the photograph or series of photographs.

The entire body of work, the lexicon, is built in PowerPoint which is a Microsoft application used for slide presentations. Each photograph/text piece is designed and presented in a unique fashion by using different typefaces, fonts and animations. The long-term plan is to present the work on multiple screens in a gallery setting where viewers can choose categories or select specific entries. I have dozens of pieces now that make references to history, science, anthropology, mathematics, psychology, mythology and more. A few of them can be seen on YouTube by searching on “A Curious Lex-

DAVID RICCI ANGULAR MOMENTUM

icon”. I intend to add new pieces for the rest of my life. These pieces ask us to consider how we obtain meaning from photographs and to question their tenuous, fragile intimacy with the truth. They are also incredibly fun to make!

My other current project is titled Hunter-Gatherer.

I photograph at pawn shops, flea markets, antique malls, thrift stores, curiosity shops and the like. I’m interested in capturing the intentional and accidental juxtaposition of kitschy items and their relationships both in terms of form and narrative.

was actually taken at a scrap metal yard near Saugerties New York. This piece is included in the abridged version of A Curious Lexicon on YouTube.

In your piece titled “Cargo Cult: Magic Circle” you are documenting something important and very beautiful. It is from your project called The Curious Lexicon. Can you explain what this all means?

David: This is a photograph of several large stacked steel frames that form a ring. The text, appropriated from Wikipedia and edited, describes cargo cults which are groups of people in undeveloped areas of the world who gather goods, or cargo, from interactions with people from the West. The photograph

When will Edge of Chaos be published and where can people buy it?

David: It will be published this year. The design is totally done but my last task, which I am currently working on, is to find an author to write an introduction. It needs to be someone who really connects with the work and can provide a fresh perspective.

I am currently shopping the book around to some small boutique photobook publishers but am considering self-publishing the book and using KickStarter to pre-sell it. If any of your readers are

Do you have any other exhibitions planned?

David: Yes. I will be having a solo exhibition at ArtSpace in Maynard which is about 25 miles west of Boston. It’s a beautiful large space and I’ll be hanging more than 40 pieces from Edge of Chaos.

It runs from May 22nd to June 8th and there’s an opening on June 1st.

interested in purchasing the book when it’s published, they can send me an email.

My contact information can be found on my website at www.davidricci.net Thank you David!

David Ricci’s photography can be seen at Bernay Fine Art through April 20, 2019. 325 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington, MA / (413) 645-3421 Thursday – Saturday 10:30-5:00, Sunday 12:004:00 or by appointment.

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 21

KATE KNAPP "GONDOLA VIEW"

MATT CHINIAN 1206 RIVER RD SCHUYLERVILLE, NY 5-14-18 11X12”

MATT CHINIAN Like a reporter I record the time and place of my wanderings around Upstate New York and New England. I find places and scenes of fascination: quiet woodlands or gas stations, farmlands or industrial sites, places I see in passing, sometimes from the corner of my eye often easily overlooked by others. This is where I find beauty. This is where I find the sublime. Open Studios of Washington County July19-21, 2019 My website/blog: http://www.mattchinian.com/ instagram: @mattchinian Facebook: matt chinian Open Studios of Washington County July19-21, 2019 http://studiotour.org/visit-washington-county-artstudios

22 •THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019

GOUACHE ON PAPER

22"X30"

CAROLYN NEWBERGER WHAT ARE WE DOING; WHERE ARE WE GOING? MIXED MEDIA, 42 X 36” 2018

FRONT ST. GALLERY

CAROLYN NEWBERGER

KATE KNAPP AT 510 WARREN STREET GALLERY: APRIL IN PARIS, VENICE AND SICILY THROUGH APRIL 28, 2019

MIXED MEDIA In our dreams, we often find ourselves in landscapes and experiences that we recognize, but that are disjointed and reconstructed. We don’t quite know what we are doing, or where we are going. In our waking hours, we think that we live in a coherent reality, but do we really? Perhaps our fragmented dreams are truer than our daytime narratives.

Collage is uniquely suited to capture that experience of a fragmented whole that almost holds together, but not quite. From a distance we see a child in a landscape. But on close inspection, the landscape becomes a jumble of naugahyde, tape, watercolor fragments, and torn paper. Who is this child? How precarious and fragmented is the world he lives in?

My work can be seen at Galatea Fine Art in Boston, the Artful Mind Gallery in Lenox in season, in juried shows throughout the year, and by appointment in my studio w w w. c a r o l y n n e w berger.com 617-877-5672

Pastels, oils, acrylics and watercolors…abstract and representational…..landscapes, still lifes and portraits….a unique variety of painting technique and styles….you will be transported to another world and see things in a way you never have before…. join us and experience something different.

Painting classes continue on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1:30pm at the studio and Thursday mornings out in the field. These classes are open to all...come to one or come again if it works for you. All levels and materials welcome. Private critiques available.

Classes at Front Street are for those wishing to learn, those who just want to be involved in the pure enjoyment of art, and/or those who have some experience under their belt. Perfect if you are seeking fresh insight into watercolors, and other mediums. A teacher for many years, Kate Knapp has a keen sense of each student’s artistic needs to take a step beyond. Perfect setting for setting up still lifes; lighting and space are excellent. Peek in to see!

Front Street Gallery – Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance anytime. 413-528-9546 at home or 413-429-7141 (cell).

robert wilk

goodbye kiss atelierberks.com

rwsculpture.com

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 23

PHOTOGRAPH BY EDWARD ACKER

ANNE UNDELAND ACTOR / PLAYWRIGHT Interview by H. Candee Cover Photograph and portraits 2019 by Edward Acker

April 18th you’ll will be back on the stage playing the role of Jennie Jerome, Lady Randy - Winston Churchill’s American mother. This is your first full-length play that you have written. To understand you better as an actor and playwright, can you recall a few lines from plays or literary venues that you have found a personal connection to?

ANNE UNDELAND: So many great plays, so many great lines! Hard to choose, but here goes: “The heart wants what it wants or else it does not care.” Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst . . .The heart is a wayward thing: unpredictable, inexorable, messy. We can’t really choose who or what we love but we’re helpless to resist the power and the beauty that beats inside. The confounding truth that Dickinson recognizes is that the heart’s not always well-behaved and 24 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

it’s not always kind. It will make us do the most extraordinary things, taking us to our highest selves but it can also make us selfish, sometimes even cruel.

Our heart will break other hearts. It will be broken itself. It wants what it wants.

When your heart’s not really into something, it’s like trying to staple jello to a wall; the thing isn’t going to take in any meaningful way-- at least not for me. Don’t get me wrong, like most adults in the world, there are plenty of things I do that my heart’s not completely into: going to the dentist, filling out college financial aid applications, scraping the ice off my windshield when I’m late for work, to name a few. However, I always keep an eye toward making room in my life for doing theater, because that is my passion, my heart’s desire. While I know it’s imprac-

tical and probably not even very responsible, reason doesn’t seem to have the deciding vote in the matter.

“We are all worms but I do believe I am a glow worm.” Winston Churchill to his mother, Jennie Jerome, in Lady Randy. . . First of all, the reason this line’s so good is because it’s a direct Churchill quote.

He wrote better than I-- and pretty much anybody else-- could ever hope to. It speaks to a desire to stand out, to do something special, to say what we want to say, make an impact and make it count. We all want to shine don’t we? Plus, it’s a very clever line and I’ll go pretty much anywhere for funny.

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant” Emily Dickinson on writing poetry in The Belle of Amherst. . . Sometimes things need a direct approach, but sometimes they don’t-- especially when you’re working on

Performing Olana Eliot, played by Eliot Boyd Bailey, meets Isabel Church, portrayed by Anne Undeland.

something creative. The way to understanding is often to go at it obliquely, or as Dickinson says, to go at it “slant.” Inspiration usually hits when my mind’s on something else, when I’m driving, half asleep, cooking. It’s as if the creative impulse is a little shy, needing first to make itself known by coming in through the side door, finding its way to my peripheral vision and sneaking up on me. The minute I try to force creativity is the same minute it jumps ship.

“They say I make women spiteful and men uncomfortable. But I’ll tell you something, there is nothing so spiteful as an uncomfortable man.” Jennie Jerome to her lover, Count Charles Kinsky in Lady Randy.

While it is not true of all men, it has been my experience that when something makes a certain kind of man feel powerless, out of his depth or uncomfortable, he will go to some extreme measures to reassert dominance and control-- usually at the expense of someone less advantaged. Since women have been historically and chronically less advantaged, we’re often are the ones who pay the price. I want to emphasize again that this drive for dominance is not true of all men or even of most men, but it is, undeniably, true of many-- you don’t have to look any further than the Oval Office or the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice to see it in action. Relatedly, it’s fascinating to watch how profoundly uncomfortable someone like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez renders some of her male colleagues. They’re completely flummoxed. It’s a sign I believe, that the times they really are changing.

“The Imp of the Perverse.” Edgar Allen Poe. . . .

This one’s from a Poe short story of the same name- I haven’t worked it into a play yet, but definitely plan to, it’s just so good. It describes that thing, that perverse thing we all have in us that keeps us from doing what we know we’re supposed to do. In fact, the very knowledge that we should do the thing is exactly the reason we can’t bring ourselves to do it! The imp’s a rebel and a saboteur but I think it’s also a big part of the creative impulse-- seductive, adventurous and funny. I probably fall under its (her? his?) sway more often than I should but then I’m a theater artist and that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

Is is for you a challenge to memorize lines?

Anne: If I have a clear sense of where the story’s going in a play, the lines aren’t actually all that difficult to memorize. You just can’t freak out about it and you have to keep plodding away. The key for me is in knowing without a shadow of a doubt the story I’m trying to tell.

Anne, tell us about your early acting years?

Anne: I was a theater kid from a pretty early age, eight or nine, but I got really serious about it when I was about 12, working with a theater company and throwing myself so thoroughly into it that it was downright disconcerting. I had found my my passion, my tribe (Yay! Weirdos like me!) and that discovery was pretty magical. I did a lot of theater in high school and then-- for reasons I still don’t fully understand-- very little in college, even though the reason I chose the school I went to because of its strong the-

Photograph: B. Docktor

ater department.

I think I’ve always wrestled with the idea of being a theater artist. On the one hand I love it more than pretty much anything, and yet, something deep inside clings to this notion that theater’s just not something that serious, mature, responsible adults do. I’m not sure whether it’s the imp of the perverse throwing a monkey wrench into the works or whether I can’t quite shake the idea that someone important will disapprove (who that person actually is, I have no idea because my family’s always been so supportive) but it’s kept me in a push-pull dynamic that I’m only now, at this stage of my life, shedding. Finally!

Were there many stumbling blocks for you along the way?

Anne: My major stumbling block has always been fear, plain and simple. Fear that I’m not going to measure up, fear that people won’t like what I’ve created. I had a few harsh reviews when I took up acting in my 20s and while the critics didn’t stop me from performing (because my heart knew what it wanted) some of those reviews were hard to bounce back from. As an artist, I’m constantly working to unpack the fear-- mercifully, it seems to get easier as I get older.

To borrow a sports metaphor, there’s a quality of mental toughness I want to develop; if I throw an interception how do I regroup fearlessly, easefully and speedily to make the next play the best in the game?

Can I use a misstep to my advantage? How do I not Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 25

Anne Undeland in Paris 1890—Unlaced!

Ventfort Hall, MA & United Solo Festival, Theatre Row, NYC Photograph by Kevin Sprague / Studio Two

let someone’s critique or a less than perfect moment on stage paralyze me? These things can be done! And I’m doing it with increasing confidence. Thank you Bill Belichick.

What other kinds of work have you done along side of acting?

Anne: How do I keep the wolves from the door? I’ve had a number of jobs that were theater-related: working as a puppeteer, an oral historian, developing living history programs for museums. None of these pay very well, but I really enjoy the work. I’ve also had the great good fortune to work at the Estate of George Rickey-- he was a 20th century American 26 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

sculptor-- and I’ve worked in the business office for years. I adore the people there and am incredibly grateful for how supportive they’ve been about my various theater projects. Finally, I own a 200 year old house that I rent out-- being a landlord can be a colossal drag (fodder for future plays, I’m sure) but it’s had the salutary effect of making me 1) fairly savvy about human nature, 2) knowledgeable about old buildings and 3) very handy with power tools.

Do you think your roles overlap into real life for you?

Anne: You mean life imitating art? It happens all the time. When I was in a production of Joan Acker-

mann’s Marcus is Walking (a delightful piece that takes place entirely in cars), I had no end of weird car trouble during the run of the show.

When I played Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst, life became almost unbearably poetic-- I found myself stopping to look at the most simple things, like a clover, a feather or a cloud, with a level of attention that was almost hallucinogenic. Emily Dickinson definitely got under my skin. I loved speaking her words. I hope she never really leaves me.

Sometimes, however, life imitated art in thornier ways. I did a one-woman show about the 19th century actress and abolitionist, Fanny Kemble, who, extraordinarily, divorced her slaveholder husband in 1849. It was a big scandal, children were involved, and things got ugly. I was going through a divorce myself at the time so the play definitely resonated. I will say, though, there was something cathartic about being able to use my own experience to deepen the work. It felt strangely good to make what I was going through useful in that way.

Right now I’m working Lady Randy. Thinking about Jennie Jerome-- Lady Randolph Churchill, the “Lady Randy” of my play-- it’s such a pleasure to find myself taking on some of her joie de vivre. I’m so excited about everything that’s going on in my life right now! Churchill wrote of her, “the wine of life was in her veins” and he was right. It’ll be interesting to see where else she’ll seep into my life over the course of rehearsals and through the run of the play.

Are there any actors in history that you admire and may use as a mentoring platform?

Anne: There are actors I really admire: Laurie Met-

ANNE UNDELAND

calf, Linda Hunt, Frank Wood, John Douglas Thompson, and about a zillion others but I don’t know if I could get anywhere near doing what they do-- even if I wanted to. What I’m trying to do is get to a point where I do me and I’m happy with that.

What has been some really good training experiences that you’ve had in acting? Anything new you’re planning to work on and explore?

Anne: I don’t actually have that much training. I did the Shakespeare & Company intensive (“boot camp” for actors) which was a tremendous, illuminating experience. I’m always up for more training, if only I had the money and the time! A particular dream is to work on my singing and get really good at stage combat.

Where do you go to study your lines?

Anne: I go on long walks with script in hand. Something about the motion helps with the memorization.

Another technique I use to memorize lines-- and it may sound totally counterintuitive-- is to lie in bed

or in the bathtub and listen to a podcast or the news while going through the lines in my head. You’d think this would be too distracting, but there’s something about accessing my liminal brain, memorizing in this oblique way (back to the Emily Dickinson idea of learning it “slant”) that helps make the words stick in my sieve-like mind.

A one-woman performance is a great challenge.

What are some of the disciplinary self-teaching guidelines that you have set for yourself? Tell us a little about some of the one woman roles you’ve taken on?

Anne: I did so many one woman shows, five in total.

I played Fanny Kemble, Emily Dickinson, five Edith Wharton characters, five demi-mondaines in a romp through Belle Epoque Paris, and the anthropologist Elsie Clewes Parsons and her mother. These onewoman shows dovetailed really well with my parenting schedule as a single mom, but more than that, they were part of a wonderful relationship I had, and

Photograph by Edward Acker

still have, with Ventfort Hall. That place and those people that will always be so dear to me. We just wanted to keep doing shows together, so we did.

When you do a single-person show, the audience becomes almost like another character in the play, you talk to them and relate with them quite directly.

There’s an especially fun suspension of disbelief that can happen when one actor plays a myriad of roles, changing before the audience’s eyes. I did a onewoman version of the Wharton short story, Xingu (adapted by the great Dennis Krausnick and directed

by Normi Noel) in which there were times when the five different characters I played were all engaged in conversation with each other. It was a challenge, but it was incredibly rewarding.

I was very disciplined about doing a extensive vocal warm-up before each performance. When it’s just you on stage for over an hour, your voice needs to be strong, it needs to be capable of expressing a full range of emotion, and it needs to be flexible Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 27

ANNE UNDELAND

enough to play all those different characters-- each of whom had her own distinctive way of speaking.

Those vocal warm-ups did their job and by the end of each run my larynx was so strong, I swear it could leap tall buildings in a single bound.

course, that you can reciprocate-- there can be such a thrill in the actorly back and forth. I can’t tell you how happy I am that the incredibly talented Mark Zeisler will be on stage with me in Lady Randy. He definitely ups my game.

Working with other actors can be –fun…? You have to be responsible for other actors in many ways. And they – for you. Relying on fellow actors not always runs smooth. What is your take on this subject?

Anne: I LOVE working with other actors! I love the bond that develops among people in a cast; it can be like getting a whole new family. It happens quickly and it can be very intense. No one knows what it’s like to be on stage in any given production the way your comrades-in-arms do. Plus, there’s nothing nicer than being on stage with other performers who make you make you a stronger, better actor. You hope, of

You are now heading straight towards your next role, a production made possible by WAM. You will be Lady Randy, Winston Churchill’s mother.

Please do tell us everything about this upcoming production starting in mid April? And you wrote it!

Anne: Yes! Lady Randy’s my first full length play and it’s being produced by WAM Theatre and I am completely over the moon about it! Mark Zeisler’s in it and Jim Frangione’s directing! Performances are at the Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company, running April 18 through May 5. And, making the dream-come-true even dreamier, I’m going to play

28 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

Photograph by Edward Acker

the featured role. Pinch me!

How is this role compelling for you, and what are some of the challenges involved?

Anne: Jennie Jerome is bewitching to me. She’s complicated, flawed, sensual, vaultingly ambitious, an unabashed scene-stealer. She was a terrible mother to her young children and a great mother to her adult children. She was utterly unapologetic about the fact that she had lovers. In truth, she was unapologetic about pretty much everything. I love that about her.

She was a deeply political animal with a strong sense of the moment-- something I think Churchill himself learned from her. She knew how to create drama and use it skillfully to advance her cause.

Since she was a 19th century woman she didn’t really have a choice but to realize her ambitions through the men in her life, first advancing her husband, Randolph, and then pulling every string she could find

ANNE UNDELAND Open Marriage, Ventfort Hall, MA Photograph by Kevin Sprague / Studio Two

(she was extremely well-connected so there were plenty of strings available to her) to advance Winston.

I often wonder what would have happened had Jennie been born a boy.

Some (always male) biographers of Churchill seem to want to write Jennie off as a woman whose primary significance was the fact that she had lovers. I’ll never forget the time a military historian leaned in to whisper conspiratorially to me, “you know, she was a grande horizontale,” a French term for an expensive courtesan. Really? I’ve found more times than I’d like to count that if there’s a mention of Jennie in the Winston Churchill story, the implication that she was some kind of harlot isn’t far behind. Of course, had she been a man, her behavior in this arena would have been considered something to admire, if it were noted as anything remarkable at all.

How is it different from past roles you have portrayed?

Anne: Jennie’s different because every character is different. Her backstory, her motivations, her likes and dislikes are specific to her. No two characters are ever the same. Something about her passion, her refusal to give up, and her insistence on remaining relevant and vital as she got older really resonated with me.

You must have done a lot of research on the history, time period, etcetera for accuracy purposes. Have you wandered at all and taken license for the purpose of generating an original and intriguing stage presence?

Anne: Yes, I did a fair bit of research. So much of Jennie’s life fell under the category of, “Oh my God, you can’t make this stuff up.” I found that listening to books on tape was the best way to do the research because it meant the information came into my mind in a more oblique way (back to Dickinson’s slant again).

If, for example, something stuck with me as I was driving my car listening, then chances were good I could

write a compelling scene about it. My general approach was to look at something I knew had happened historically and then write the dialogue I thought my characters would have about it.

At a certain point, I actually had to stop doing so much research because it began to box me in creatively. The scene in the play that I researched the most fully was by far the most difficult to write-- I must’ve written 10 versions of it. At a certain point I realized this is a play, not a lecture, and gave myself permission to make things up.

Are you a history buff? What time period would you want to actually live in if you had a choice?

Anne: I’m a total history geek with a particular fondness for the 19th century. I think I like it so much because it’s tangible to me: I can read the books, visit the buildings, look at the photographs, listen to the music.

I’d love to have lived in the 19th century were it not Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 29

Can you give us a glimpse into your childhood? A day in the Life of Anne?

Anne: My family moved around a lot when I was a kid because my dad was in the Foreign Service, specializing in the Middle East. We lived in some pretty interesting places but I didn’t think much of it, it was just my life-- although the constant uprooting (we moved every two or three years) was hard. I don’t know whether it was a product of all the moving or whether it was my own nature, but I spent a great deal of time alone. I kind of preferred it that way because it gave me room and time to daydream.

This is an aside, but I know a number of theater people who had similarly peripatetic childhoods; I think there’s something about starting a new play that feels like moving to a new country.

I think about the Middle East a lot. While there are some bright spots, looking at it now fills me with sorrow, especially when I think about Syria. I feel like I’ll write some sort of theater piece about it at some point, I just haven’t found a way to do it yet.

And now, you are finding a need to question the scarcity in acting roles for women over 50. What are you doing to make it all less scarce for those talented women out there over 50? For yourself?

Anne: The fact that there aren’t that many great roles for women over 50 reflects the culture in which we live. We simply haven’t been written into the story. I don’t think it’s deliberate, it’s just that most plays were written by men and they wrote about what they knew. This is definitely changing, with a new, exciting feeling in the air that says “Women’s stories?

Women over 50? Who knew?” Well, we all knew! We just didn’t manifest it. At a certain point I got tired of thinking, “No decent roles for women like me? Ok, I guess that’s just the way things are.” More than that, I got tired of complaining about it. Be part of the solution, right? So now I’m on a mission with my playwriting, and it is to tell the dimensional, sexy, complicated stories of women over 50, making them the ones who drive the action and get the bulk of the funny lines. I don’t know what’s going to happen with my plays in the future, but I do know there are some kick-booty roles for older women in them.

ANNE UNDELAND Fanny Kemble’s Lenox Address , Ventfort Hall/ Shakespeare & Co, MA Photograph by Kevin Sprague / Studio Two

for the fact that women were essentially chattel, property belonging to their fathers, husbands, and brothers. So while I may be fascinated by the era and interested and excited by the many ways women found to prevail, I’m not sure I’d actually want to have lived it.

As a child, were you aware of yourself having an enormous imagination? Was it this time in your young life that you started to find the passion of acting?

Anne: I never saw myself as a person with a big imagination. I still wonder if I have a big imagination, honestly. One of the reasons Lady Randy was so 30 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

appealing to me was because so much of the story was already there in the facts of the life she led.

I was, however, a big reader as a child and a huge daydreamer. I could sit on the patio swing or look out the car window for hours, developing these elaborate scenarios where I was on some kind of adventure with someone-- usually someone I had a crush on from the movies or TV but I won’t tell you who because it’s just too mortifying. My stories tended to be short on plot but long on derring-do-- some kind of escape or rescue, usually through a war zone-- and there was always a little romance. I was very into romance.

Crossing over into the playwriter’s world, what do you find amazing about it? Why has this adventure started for you, you think?

Anne: I don’t know why it’s happening but I like it!

No, I take that back, I do know. I’m at a place in my life where I actually have some chops, I have something to say, and playwriting seems to be the medium for my message.

It all started on a bit of a lark when I submitted a piece to the first Radius Festival at Berkshire Playwrights Lab. My play was not selected, but they did invite me to be part of their “Berkshire Voices” playwriting group. That group was invaluable to me, for the critique of the other writers, for their community and companionship, and more than anything, for the deadlines that being in the group entailed. Since I had to come up with a new scene every two weeks, lo and behold, I had a draft of Lady Randy by the end of the second session. The rest is history.

Some of us have so much creative juice, we don’t know what to do with it all. Often, these people take on too much, just because they are so thirsty! From your point of view, how do you limit and focus on what is really need to?

When I take on a big theatre project like Lady Randy, I guard the time around it vigilantly. I clear the decks as best I can, let people know I’m not going to be available, and try to take care of all my life stuff ahead of time so I can dive headlong, unencumbered and undistracted into the life of the play.

Throughout your experiences on stage, what is your greatest fear? What is your greatest thrill?

What are your expectations for Lady Randy?

Anne: Oh my God, my greatest fear is that I’m going to suck!

No, you won’t!

Anne: My greatest thrill is when I really connect with the material, the other actors, the audience, the production, and we’re all together on the electrifying, moving, ephemeral journey that is a great night at the theater. No one wants to be anywhere else. It’s transcendent, it’s an experience of channeling, of flow, and it is utterly addictive.

How does Berkshire County satisfy you as an artist? Do you feel the need to travel elsewhere for inspiration, then and now?

Anne: I love the Berkshires. For a place that’s as rural as it is, it has an extraordinary number of really great artists doing really great work. I also need my urban fix, so spend a fair bit of time in Boston, New York, and Washington DC, where my mom lives. I love the buzz of the city but it feels wonderful to come back to the quiet of home in the country and to the friendships I’ve developed over the years. My perfect world would give me a pied a terre in New York while spending most of my time up here.

Are there any musicians and visual artists that delight you? What can you relate to and learn from them?

Anne: That’s a hard question. I’m coming out of writing Lady Randy where it’s been all about the 19th century all the time. I love love love John Singer Sargent for the skill of his brushwork and the astuteness of his character study-- the things that man could do with paint leave me breathless. I love the late 19th Century French composers, Chopin too. I don’t listen to music when I write-- too distracting-- but I will stop to look at a painting, a photograph, walk through a building or a landscape.

Can you tell us one secret about yourself now ready to reveal?

Anne: I bite my fingernails terribly.

As far as your life goes, can you tell us about some of the issues you are aware and trying to understand?

Anne: I’m trying to figure out what it means to be a woman who’s ready to take up a some space and make a little noise. All my training and instincts are to be a “good girl,” to keep everyone happy and above all, to make sure everyone likes me. Sometimes I spend so much energy and attention on these things that I don’t even know what my own opinions are. I’m learning to put myself out there, joyfully and without apology. There’s a lot I can take from Jennie Jerome’s playbook.

What else, aside from theatre gives you pleasure and fulfillment?

Anne Undeland Photograph by Edward Acker 2019

Anne: My son, my family, my friends, the people I love. I love to cook and I love to make a space beautiful. I like throwing a party. I love walking around cities. I like to travel, even if it’s only to Schenectady.

Feels like it’s been a while since I’ve gone further afield in my travels, so I’m really looking forward to more of that.

starts to bore you. At a certain point you just have to go to the edge and jump in.

Would you ever consider working as a stage designer?

Anne: If I didn’t love performing and writing as much as I do, I’d want to be a costume designer. Oh costumes! The way they can change the performer, the way they can really make or break a role. Plus, they can be so very beautiful.

https://www.wamtheatre.com/ladyrandy/

Lady Randy is being produced by WAM Theatre and performed at the Bernstein at Shakespeare & Company April 18-May 5.

The play takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through the life of Jennie Jerome, Winston Churchill’s extraordinary American mother. Anne will be playing Jennie, Mark Zeisler will play the myriad of people in her life.

Jim Frangione will direct.

Lady Randy, how do you know when you’re ready to take to the stage?

Anne: If there were no opening date, I bet we can keep working on things for a lifetime! Deadlines make the world go around. You can fiddle with something forever, tweak it until it loses all meaning and THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 31

GHETTA HIRSCH CENTERING 24”X36” CLAUDIA D’ALESSANDRO NATURE’S FACE

CLAUDIA D’ALESSANDRO PHOTOGRAPHY "Claudia's photography touches our souls with deep joy!" ~ CHR Like John Burroughs, “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.”

Through my lens, I can capture moments otherwise gone in an instant -- in prints on canvas, aluminum and photo paper -- and keep close the scenes of the beauty and mystery that exist all around.

"She sees with her eyes and feels with her heart." ~ DKAH The Berkshires is a changing, moving and exciting palette with a seasonal and topographical backdrop that has made this region a destination for generations of people seeking a beautiful place just to 'be.'

Since 1965 I have been a 'been, gone, and now back' resident here and I have come to realize that there is no place that I would rather be. In hills and streams, lakes and brooks, valleys and woods, and from the tops of our mountains, there is everything I need to soothe my spirits and enliven my soul. And there is little that I enjoy as much as catching a tiny bit of that beauty and preserving it for all to see.

In Spring, the harshness and hardness of winter gives way to brighter colors, softer edges and erupting life. Water runs, and plays, and sparkles. Greens erupt everywhere, and life begins its cycle anew.

There is no more exciting time in the Berkshires than Spring. And I enjoy trying to catch and preserve as many moments as I can, through my lens.

Claudia D’Alessandro - https://www.dalessandrophotography.com, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cdalessandrophotography/ and Instagram: dalessandronatura.

To order prints or enquire about pricing, email cdalessandro26@gmail.com

“The mind loves the unknown.

It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.”

-Rene Magritte

32 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

MARGUERITE BRIDE PANINI

WATERCOLOR

MARGUERITE BRIDE CUSTOM WATERCOLORS GHETTA HIRSCH STILLNESS OIL ON CANVAS 20'X24"

GHETTA HIRSCH I feel like I had two spring seasons as I just spent eight weeks in France painting on the warm south Atlantic coast and now I return to the Berkshires for a glorious re-run of nature’s yearly renaissance. I get a second spring, but the light in France and here is different, and so are the atmosphere, landscapes and the emotional investment on my part.

I went to the Pyrenees mountains as well. They form an angular and rugged barrier to Spain. This is quite different from our soft and rounded Berkshires summits that inspire my painting style.

I love to be back painting in New England. The cycle of seasons in the Berkshires give me a sense of renewal and hope - the artistic narrative for the serene paintings that I exhibit in my studio and regional galleries. Painting is for me a reflective, meditative and visual appreciation of nature. Here I explore the color arrangement that provide us with pathways to our thoughts and feelings. Or perhaps those pathways are just mine?

In my website, you will see under “Events” a list of demonstrations that I have done in 2018. As I did some active demonstrations of painting at Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio, at the Artful Mind Gallery, both in Lenox, and one for the 4th and 5th graders of the Williamstown Elementary School, I aimed to show my passion, style and love for the art. In fact, I did so many “impasto” demos that I embarked on a new technique of mixing oils and cold wax for a more subdued and mat effect. This artistic evolution enriches what I have to offer. I hope you will get to visit my studio.

Ghetta Hirsch - Studio visits - call or text at 413281-0626; Instagram @ghettahirschpaintings; Website ghetta-hirsch.squarespqce.com

A custom painting is always treasured gift. Is there a have special occasion in your future? Anniversary?

Wedding? Graduation? Retirement? Selling a home and downsizing?

Now is a great time to commission a house portrait or favorite scene you would like captured in a watercolor. Paintings (or even a personalized gift certificate, then I work directly with the recipient) make a cherished and personal gift for weddings, retirement, new home, old home, anniversaries…..any occasion is special. Commission work is always welcome. Be in touch directly with the artist…it is guaranteed to be a fun adventure!

Bride’s solo exhibit, “Jazz Visions”, 22 original watercolors, mostly on canvas are on “long-term” exhibit at 51 Park Tavern in Lee, Massachusetts. Announcement of summer shows will be coming soon.

Check the website for the most up to date information.

And assortment of small originals is available at Hancock Shaker Village. Fine art reproductions and note cards of Berkshire images and others by the artist are also available at the Red Lion Inn Gift Shop (Stockbridge), Lenox Print & Mercantile (Lenox), Good Purpose Gallery (Lee); and a variety of other fine gift shops, and also directly from the artist. The artist gives group lessons in watercolor technique in her home studio. Contact the artist and/or visit her website for more details.

Marguerite Bride – Home Studio at 46 Glory Drive, Pittsfield, Massachusetts by appointment only.

Call 413-841-1659 or 413-442-7718; margebridepaintings.com; margebride@aol.com; Facebook: Marguerite Bride Watercolors

THE AMERICAN BRASS QUINTET

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC The American Brass Quintet is peerless among brass ensembles, sculpting new repertoire and setting the artistic standards for the modern classical brass ensemble. Saturday, April 13, 6pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA, the Quintet evening begins with a staple of Romantic brass music-Victor Ewald's Brass Quintet No. 2, from late 1800's Russia. Common Heroes, Uncommon Land, a recent commission through the Juilliard School, where they have been in residence for three decades, is a work with an Americana sound by Philip Lasser requiring each player to recite poetry. Three Fantasies in Church Modes by Thomas Soltzer, a European priest and court musician, dates back to the 15 th century. The night ends with Eric Ewazen's engaging Frost Fire which evokes from the composer adjectives such as "gentle," "mysterious," "playful, sonorous and waltz-like" and "heroic and dynamic."

On Sunday, April 28, composer, song writer and fashionista Tamar Muskal will talk about pop songs and symphonies. She is working on a new opera, set in the world of high fashion, that tells the story of Diana Vreeland and Andre Leon Talley and examines the constant rises and falls of the industry. This is at the Casana T House in Hillsdale, NY. Escher String Quartet will appear May 18 at 6pm at The Mahaiwe. Acclaimed for musical insights and rare tonal beauty, and championed by the Emerson String Quartet, the Escher has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia and Asia. And now they're returning to Great Barrington and The Mahaiwe!

On Saturday, June 8, 6 PM, Mahaiwe will feature GALA: Like Father-In-Law, Like Son-In-Law - - Antonin Dvorak and Josef Suk. More performances to come! Please put these on your calendar, if you haven't yet.

Close Encounters with Music - Tickets are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413-528-0100, mahaiwe.org., cewm.org or by calling 800-843-0778; Facebook: @closeencounterswithmusic, Instagram: @closeencounterswithmusic, Twitter: @CEWMusic

STEPHANIE BLUMENTHAL CLARK

PHOTOGRAPH

aMUSE GALLERY

WOOD RELIEF WALL SCULPTURE

PHILIP ROBERTS

PARADISE CITY ARTS FESTIVAL MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND It’s Springtime in Paradise! The best way to spend your holiday weekend is in Northampton, the cultural heart of New England, at one of America’s most spectacular fairs of fine craft, painting and sculpture.

The Paradise City Arts Festival (literally) rolls out the carpet for this season’s splendidly curated collection of hundreds of artists and fine craft makers, coming from every corner of the country. It’s three great days of astounding visual arts, eye-popping design, scrumptious food and, of course, great fun!

It’s a short, lovely ride from the Berkshires for the chance to see the remarkable work and hear the stories of 250 extraordinary artists. Well over 10,000 attendees, many traveling long distances, visit this sprawling show held on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day Weekend. Yankee Magazine wrote this year that “the Northampton visual arts scene explodes at the twice-yearly Paradise City Arts Festival, an extravaganza of 200-plus top-notch craftspeople and fine artists that’s been dazzling shoppers since 1995.”

Paradise City keeps its visitors’ hands, eyes and brains busy. Shibumi Silk offers a fantastic hands-on experience in silk marbling techniques.

Make your own patterned scarf using a rainbow of vibrant dyes! Alan and Rosemary Bennett, known for their life-sized, realistic renditions of fish and sea creatures, lead very popular clay sculpture workshops for children (and the young at heart). Steve Weisman demonstrates the fine art of woodturning.

Plus, the changing installations and large-scale sculpture along the Sculpture Promenade are catnip for kids, Instagram heaven and full of fantastic decorating ideas for the attendees’ own gardens.

Paradise City Arts Festival, May 25, 26 & 27, at Northampton’s 3 County Fairgrounds, on Old Ferry Road off Rt. 9. From the Mass Pike, take exit 4 to I91 North, Exit 19. For complete show and travel information, advance online tickets and discount admission coupons, visit www.paradisecityarts.com or call 800-511-9725.

aMuse is a modern eclectic gallery that features the work of artists from the Hudson Valley, Berkshires and beyond. Housed in a beautiful Greek revival building, there is a warm, home-like feeling to the gallery and the relaxed and welcoming atmosphere allows you to explore the work with ease.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised by this little gem, with its variety of interesting art and eccentricities available in a range of prices and styles.

Due to popular demand, aMuse Gallery has extended its current group photography show Through the Lens until April 21. Participating artists are Carl Berg, Stephanie Blumenthal, Jerry Freedner, Kathryn Kosto, Bruce Panock, Janice Patterson, Marcia Powdermaker, Gerald Seligman and Janet Zuckerman.

Only a couple weeks left, so be sure not to miss it!

With spring finally arriving, the time seems right for some "outsider art”. Raw Image will be showcasing just that in fascinating new exhibit running April 25- May 27, 2019. Outside of the mainstream and self-taught, the featured artists will be Joel Schiller, Jody Schoenfeld, Kelly Moore and Alex Bayless.

This will be a fun show so be sure to stop by for the opening reception Saturday April 27 4-7 PM, or during our regular gallery hours. aMuse gallery- 7 Railroad Avenue- Chatham NY12037; Gallery Hours: Thursday- Saturday 11am5pm, Sunday 12-4pm. Handicap accessible. For more information call 518-392-1060 or visit amusechatham.com

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live!”

-Henry David Thoreau

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 33

SIMEON BITTMAN FOLKLORE FOODS Interview by H. Candee

Simeon, what is it about fresh food that has taken you by storm? Is it not only for the taste sensation, but equally for its visually beauty? ((maybe, not all the time, may it looks not appealing but it’s very good for you – has your mom said that to you when you were a kid?))

Simeon Bittman: Yes, fresh food is beautiful. Picture some of your favorite veggies right now. They’re alluring. It’s almost like they know they gotta look good and make you fall in love with them so that you’ll select them. And it just happens to turn out that the elements of their attractability, their color, aliveness, translate into flavors and nutrients.

I’m not much of a believer of the idea that if it looks yucky it’s probably good for you. I’m not sure it really is good for you on a deeper level. If you’re eating miserably and forcefully in the name of health, than is it healthy for that most important part of you—your soul? Not sure.

Where did you study the art of food making?

34 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

Photography by Ryan Ghent

More importantly where do you now study?

Simeon: I learned how to cook in restaurants in Amherst MA, Boston and San Francisco, with caterers, at home, in endless cookbooks and recipes, and at Culinary School. I cherish those experiences and they are still alive in me today.

I think there is a bit of a separation from the skills and technics of cooking, the craft, and the art.

Though they definitely work together for sure.

I think the art comes from the free imagination.

Sometimes the imagination creates from a place where there are no rules, no skills to adhere to. From that place, ideas blossom and then I take those ideas down and see if they’re possible to do technically, and if they would make sense to people experiencing it. For example, I’ve been on this trip lately of imagining whole vegetables. Like a whole carrot—just sitting there on a plate. Looking fresh and vibrant and attractive and with it’s top still on. And when you bite into it, it tastes and feels like no other carrot you’ve ever tasted. Sure you could just get a really delicious

carrot and eat it raw and that would be awesome too.

But in my imagination I try to think about how I can make it taste even more amazing through applying a technic. How can I apply my art, and my skill, the technics I know or want to learn, to make it mindbendingly awesome? Could I coat it in honey powder and carrot pulp bound together with an egg white and roast it for a week at 150F? Crack it open and serve it lying face up in it’s sweet orange cacoon?

These days I study at home, in a rent-a-kitchen, onsite at Folklore events, working with the incomparable Heirloom Fire, in the garden, on youtube, in cookbooks, on Instagram, with old friends and colleagues and classmates.

How did you begin as a chef? Was there a cultural influx of family inspiration by chance?

Simeon: You mean was I inspired by my Dad? Definitely. Still am. He’s a gardener. I was inspired by Mom too. She’d make tomato sauce from Dad’s tomatoes in a big pot. Super special moments dipping

Beautiful food made by Simeon Bittman / Folklore Foods Meal delivery service and small catering, Berkshires, MA

Photos Ryan Ghent

bread in the bubbling sauce. Mom taught me how to make scrambled eggs when I was little. I remember every step to this day. Her scrambled eggs are the best.

What other career/work choices were at your disposal that interested you when it came near decision-making time?

Simeon: Electronic music production, journalism, sound design, sound editing. Not sure they were at my disposal per se. They felt like heavy and burdensome fields to enter. Opportunities to pursue them didn’t seem exciting to me. Cooking felt light. It felt good. I was fired up about it. Opportunities came and I was excited to take them. I sought out opportunity.

I just went with the flow and eventually all other pursuits were abandoned or deemed hobbies.

I think you might just be multi-talented, could that be?

Simeon: Isn’t everyone? We just decide what to focus on and we get good at it. The trick to getting super good is to focus on something that feels really really good to do and just stay at it. Even if you stink at it.

If you dig doing it, you won’t stink for long. When you begin to see a little ability shine through, you’re in. You’re hooked. You’ve got direction. You’re gone.

What categories / styles do you mostly enjoy working with? Are there any new styles of cooking, and what to cook that you want to learn about and eventually be able to prepare from scratch?

Simeon: I started by being drawn to Asia. And still am. I actually identified with it so much that I wanted be known as specializing in it. I tapped into Buddhism and mindfulness when I was beginning to cook alot and the cuisines of Asia made sense for that.

But I also tapped into the lightness of what is/was called California cuisine in the early-mid 2000’s. I got immersed in it out in the Bay Area of California.

The reverence for veggies and good gardening and awesome value-added products. About simplicity in cooking. And a serious focus on good, sound cooking.

Most recently you could say I’m in some kind of transition about the type of cuisine I cook. I’ve begun

letting go of an identity about what I cook and what I have cooked. It feels like I’m beginning on a new path that incorporates all my study and experience and inspirations and is now forming into it’s own kind of art. And it feels like a beginning. Like I’m just starting to catch myself following an old rule I learned, or putting together a dish that went over well sometime in the past, or thinking about the classic combinations—and then flipping them on their head or running them through the Folklore filter. I don’t always catch myself before it’ too late and I’ve accidentally written an uninspiring menu, caught up in the fast pace of my life, cranking out menu proposals, Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 35

Simeon Bittman’s culinary visions were brought to to the table at The Race Brook Lodge, Spring Banquet March 24, 2019.

Photos by Ryan Ghent

36 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

Brisket!

Brought to you by Simeon Bittman

Photos by Ryan Ghent

season? Landscaping may be affiliated as well?

Simeon: My Dad is the real gardener. I work and learn from him. This year we’re going to focus a bit on ingredients usually known to come from Asia and India—ginger, turmeric, shiso, stuff like that. He knows best how to arrange everything in the garden—by size, according to where in the garden the sun travels or stays throughout the day, which parts of the garden have specific nutrients in them from the previous year’s crop and/or amendments, where things look best. He knows the intricacies of caring for plants. He understands many of them. He researches to learn more but he really knows a ton already.

submitting invoices, paying bills, burping babies, smoking salmon. But in that quiet of creativity, in the shower, in the car, early in the morning with a cup of coffee, or in the moment I realize I’ve been standing in the aisle at Guido’s staring at nothing for 5 minutes, I am catching it, just enough to believe in stepping out, and making my own art.

I’m not sure what this is going to mean for our meal delivery menus, or for the menus we create for special events. But menus are likely going to evolve, that’s for sure.

What would be trending now in terms of ingredients, vegetables, new foods? You walk into a whole foods indoor/outdoor market and you can

just get a sense of what may be trending, even for a novice. ((So what’s HOT!?)

Simeon: Hmmm not sure what’s trending out there in The Whole Foods world right now. Pumpkin Spice?

What’s hot, and what I think should be hot to a novice is the batch of pickles aging in the cabinet, or the vinegar you’ve got in a jar somewhere in your basement doing it’s thing, or the gravlax curing in your fridge or the apples drying in the dehydrator with cinnamon. The local chicken you just learned to break down and debone is pretty hot. Your fresh herb pot is hot.

You must have a beautiful garden. Can you describe it for us? What is the garden’s plan for this

What do you consider good food? Do you find that there are people that just cannot be enlightened, and just wanna keep eating “white Bread and stuff”? What is good food, anyway, and why? Its cheaper to buy store brand…(ugh!)

Simeon: I don’t even know anymore what good food is. I’m lost. Sometimes the junkiest food is just so good! I love frying things. And sometimes a carrot ribbon with a hit of salt and smoked paprika is perfect. Sometimes I’ll make the richest beef Bolognese. Sometimes it’s rice and beans tossed in cilantro/seed pesto. Sometimes it’s mac n cheese with more cheese in it than Wisconsin. Sometimes it’s just Folklore food—complex but simple, nourishing but extravagant, emotional, loving.

Sometimes it’s jelly bean fruit leather.

Your wife, Natanya and you are modern day entrepeneurs!

Continued on next page...

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 37

Simeon Bittman & apple pies from oven to plate Photos by Ryan Ghent

and service and delivery teams. I do all event bookings and coordination. We both answer emails and inquiries.

I always thought being an entrepreneur would be the most terrifying thing for us. Continued on next page...

Throwing away the stability in order to be enslaved the ups and downs of something. I was right. It is.

No, it’s awesome. We’re still in that feeling of bliss because we’re doing our own thing and people are supporting it.

But it’s not the only thing right now. We still have to work outside of it. We just had twins too. This summer, we’re stepping out of production and doing events and deliveries because we’re working with a business consultant/marketing guy to really help us locate our market, determine our pricing, and find out 38 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

how Folklore can really thrive and become all that it can be.

How do you divide the responsibilities between you and Natanya for Folklore Foods?

Simeon: Natanya did the website. It’s awesome. She set up the online ordering system and came up with gift certificates. She pushed for a subscription plan for meal deliveries. She makes me track expenses and makes sure taxes get paid. She just hired the accountant and brought on a social media consultant. She supports me in cooking what feels right, no matter what. I do the food. And the PR. I build the cooking

There’s many wonderful old world, folklore stories related to food. Thoughts?

Simeon: We’d love to see some of those stories! We really connect with the vibes behind the word Folklore—stories past down from epic experiences.

Myth. Legend. Magic. The thought of Folklore makes me want to cook big meals—feasts. Harvest celebrations, important family moments, huge celebrations at the end of wartime. Experiences remembered forever. Stories made that are passed on for generations until they’re exaggerated into absurdity.

Happiness. Joy. Abundance.

Whole, slow cooked vegetables, grains, baked goods, wild mushrooms, beef cooked for days, smoked chickens, sauces, pickles, fruits, honey, mead, beer, hard alcohol, wine, the best products and freshest food around. Everything made from total scratch. Cooks going all out, feeding off the energy of the celebration. Making things noone has ever seen before but things that blow everyone’s minds and make them cry.

I know we’re just food and festive focused on this one aspect of what Folklore is, but it was enough to want to name our company after it.

What is the healthiest junk food you can grab on the go and not feel guilty about eating?

Simeon: Nothing. I always feel guilty about eating

Still life photograph by Ryan Ghent

on the go when I should be sitting and savoring a meal. And creating waste from the packaging.

Is there a substitute for Salt?

Simeon: Nope.

Honestly, is red meat healthy, you think? Is whole milk healthy? Do you often substitute a recipe if it has ingredients you do not believe are beneficial?

Simeon: The only ingredients I think are not beneficial are ones with additives, unnecessary preservatives, corn syrup, modified whatever, hydrogenated what-have-you. I feel like they’re not good for you and I also don’t like supporting the perpetuation of them for a lot of political, social and ecological reasons. But mostly they muddle flavor and create unnatural tastes in a dish. I also buy organic when I’m not buying local. I prefer my local veggies to be organic, but I will bend to support local farmers and to get super fresh and delicious ingredients. I only buy meat that has been fed well and never with anything in them that speeds up their growth or tries to keep them healthy when they live in a tiny cage with thousands of others locked inside their whole lives.

Other than that, I say eat things in their whole form. Eat meat. Eat cheese. Drink raw whole milk.

Eat butter. Eat liver. And also, eat leafy things. Eat whole vegetables just pulled from the ground with a little of the dirt still on it. Eat fruit and berries. Eat mushrooms.

If someone has a serious health consideration and

SImeon and Natalia

needs to stay away from cholesterol or too much fat or dairy or gluten, there are ways to eat whole, to eat well, and to eat inspiring meals and stay healthy. It’s one of my favorite ways to cook actually. So don’t lose hope, and don’t feel like you’re a burden, and don’t become a curmudgeon—please.

Making the plate look divine: What makes the plate, the food on the plate look enticing and mouth-watering?

Simeon: I call upon the instincts we’ve evolved with for identifying something as highly edible—does it look appetizing? Does it look like it’s good for me?

Does it look filling? Does it look I could be really satisfied by it? Does it make my mouth water? Does it make my tummy grumble? But also, does it look pretty? Is it colorful?

And is it imaginative? Does it look like something I’ve seen before but also like nothing I’ve ever seen

before? Does it touch something emotional inside?

How does living in the Berkshires contribute to your livelihood, your dream?

Simeon: This is my home. This place always seems to surprise me and provide for me and come through for me. This place has amazing people on farms and in kitchens and it supports people on farms and in kitchens. This place is beautiful. You can find quiet when you need it, and can find noise when you need that too. This place lets me spread my wings and feel like there’s space to open myself up here, to grow Folklore, to explore a new cuisine with the support of a great audience and great colleagues.

Thank you Simeon!

folklorefoods.net

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 39

BERKSHIRE OPERA FESTIVAL Proudly presents Gaetano Donizetti’s charming classic Don Pasquale with performances August 24, 27, and 30 at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. The production is conducted by Artistic Director Brian Garman and directed by and Director of Production Jonathon Loy, the co-founders of Berkshire Opera Festival.

There will also be recitals and outreach events around the Berkshires, including an exciting new collaboration with Hancock Shaker Village entitled Ain’t it a Pretty Night: Excerpts from American Opera, and Savor the Sound: An Evening of Bel Canto, a free concert for the Berkshire community.

Costume Designer Charles Caine will be discussing his career and costuming for opera April 27. Don Pasquale will be sung in Italian with projected English translations. Tickets are priced from $20 to $99. For more information, please visit www.berkshireoperafestival.org/donpasquale

OTIS ARTS FESTIVAL

Famous for his long poems exploring the paranormal, the weird, the unexplained, and what makes us human, Matt Bialer turns his poetic talents to the urban legend of the Shadow People. AMAZON.COM

The Twelfth Annual Otis Arts Festival will be held on Saturday, August 3, 2019, from 9:00am 3:00pm, at the Farmington River Elementary School, in Otis, MA. The Otis Cultural Council invites local artists and craftspeople to join in this fantastic indoor event to display and sell their artwork. Entry fee is $20 for Otis residents, $25 for non-Otis residents.

Check payable to Otis Cultural Council must be submitted with application, available online at: www.townofotisma.com/culturalcouncil. For information, email culturalco.otis@yahoo.com, or call 413-269-4674. Deadline for applications, July 3, 2019.

Gourmet Organic Vegetarian Fare with an international flair

Our Schedule is: Zen Silent Meditation Porridge Monday & Friday 8am-8:45 Tea & Gratitude Writing Our Way Into The Day With Jana Laiz Fridays 9am-10:30am Luncheon Monday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday noon-2pm Afternoon Teatime: Monday, Thursday, Friday, & Saturday 2pm-4pm Sunday Brunch 10am-2pm Sunday Afternoon Salons 21 Day Cleanse Retail Items • Bulk Loose Teas and Herbs 70 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA www.Elixirgb.com organictearoom@gmail.com 413.644.8999 Hours: Sunday 12- 4, Monday 12 - 4, Monday 12 - 4, Friday 12 - 4, Saturday 12 - 8. Reservations recommended!

Everything is always lovingly & consciously prepared with fresh organic ingredients!

40 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

Faldoni CHAPTER 8 RICHARD BRITELL You may recall from last month that Faldoni had been condemned to death and the execution was to take place after Easter. Faldoni’s jailer had promised to teach Faldoni to read and write in his last forty days, even though he was illiterate; but he though it wouldn’t matter since Faldoni would not know the difference.

If you are perhaps a student of ancient literature and philosophy you may just notice a similarity between Faldoni’s jailer and the jailer of Socrates. The great philosopher and his jailer were friends, as were Faldoni and his, but there the similarity ends as you will see.

The jailer said he could read and write, but that was a lie. He was able to write his name, and to read his name once he had written it down, but beyond that he was illiterate. Having claimed that he could read and write he was too embarrassed to confess the truth to the gardener, so when he was requested to be Faldoni’s teacher, he consented readily and with excitement, as if he had always desired to be a professor of the Italian language.

For a moment he had a pang of guilt about this deception, but then he thought, “What’s the difference anyway, he will not exist in a few weeks, and if in the mean time he thinks he is learning to read and write, what’s the harm. Besides, it will keep his mind off of that disagreeable thing of the burning.”

If only Faldoni had decided in his last month of life to do something else with his time. I think it would have made more sense for him to have learned to play the flute, or the guitar. It might have been difficult to procure a flute or a guitar under the circumstance, but I am sure something could have been arranged, perhaps a loan or something.

I have often noticed that when very nice people, who are completely innocent of any wrong doing, are condemned to death by torture, the people who have to deal with them are often very sympathetic and helpful, and go out of their way to accommodate them in any way they can. That was the situation for Faldoni. I am sure his jailer, or even other monks in the monastery would have provided him with any sort of instrument he might have desired.

The reason I say that Faldoni would have spent his time better if he learned to play the guitar, rather than trying to hopelessly learn to read and write is because

when you strum the guitar you receive an immediate personal gratification, that is if your guitar is in tune, and you strum it in the right way.

A person learning to read needs the assistance of another person in order to gain the satisfaction that comes from doing the thing correctly. So, you must picture to yourself poor Faldoni, memorizing the letters of Latin words, trying to remember how to write them down and pronounce them, burdening his mind with remembering what his jailer’s said the words were.

If the jailer held up one of the scraps of paper they were using with a phrase on it, Faldoni would wrinkle up his brow and concentrate and then come out with the exclamation, “It says, how are you today my good sir?” Then the jailer would nod his head up and down enthusiastically to encourage Faldoni. The truth was that the Latin phrase actually said, “Among the Helvetii, the Orgetorix were by far the most distinguished and wealthy,” because the book they were using was Caesars’ Gallic wars.

The point to consider here is that Faldoni could only derive the satisfaction of accomplishing something with the help of the encouragement of the jailer, whereas if he was studying the guitar, he could have felt the pure pleasure of his accomplishment all by himself in the darkness of his cell, alone in the middle of the night, as he awaited the fast approaching end of his life.

If he was playing the guitar in that way, just try to picture to yourself the terrible anguish the sound coming from his room would have had on monks and other personnel of the monastery. It would have simply torn one’s heart to pieces. But no, Faldoni was not playing the guitar in the middle of the night, as he should have been.

For a while the instruction in reading and writing went along without any problems because whatever the Jailer made up as his explanations for the words in the Latin text, he was able to remember and repeat.

But after a while, when they were about half way through the second page, remembering all of his invented words and phrases became a difficulty. Off and on the Jailer began to make mistakes and transpose one phrase for another. Faldoni did not notice this, and each time he found out his answers were wrong he just frowned and concentrated all the harder on the task. But by the time the two of them got to the third page of the text the problems and discrepancies in the instruction became so frequent that Faldoni finally noticed.

The Jailer’s mistakes came to light over this phrase; “Libenter homines id quod vuod volunt credunt.” The jailer told Faldoni that those words said, “This pork is burnt.” Later he said that they meant, “It looks like rain today.” The words actually mean: “Men freely believe in whatever they want.”

This was truly a fortuitous phrase for the instruction of reading and writing to break down on, because it summed up the very thing the Jailer and Faldoni were doing. The Jailer had no use for any supposed actual meaning of any of the words in the text; he was simply enjoying himself with a word game to pass the time while they waited for Easter to come.

But Faldoni grew troubled by the multiplicity of meanings the words seemed to have, and began to complain about the difficulty of remembering so many different definitions. The Jailer only made things worse by offering this explanation.

“You have to understand that words change their meanings all the time, and hardly ever stay the same

from one minute till the next. If it is a beautiful day, and I say it’s a beautiful day, then those words mean what you think they always mean. But if I say it is a beautiful day and it is storming out, then the same words mean the opposite of what they normally mean.”

And then you have to consider that many words have more than one meaning to begin with. Also people are always making up new words, and giving new definitions to old words. Then too, as time goes by, all words change very slowly, so this job of learning to read and write can take a person a lot longer than thirty or forty days.

The Jailer said all that just because he had been leading Faldoni along and pretending to teach him to read, when actually he was just playing a game to kill the time. Faldoni did not figure out the truth, but seeing how hard the task was, and how unlikely it would be to write his letter to the judges he hit upon a simple solution.

He decided to simply dictate the letter, and his teacher, if he would be so kind, could write it all down for him on a piece of parchment, and then he would send it off to the court.

The Jailer offered to do as he was requested, but stressed that the letter needed to be as short as possible, because those judges with so many cases to try were always very busy. What he was hoping was that he could commit the letter to memory, and then repeat it so someone else could write it out. That way the condemned man would never realize that their paper was just a series of unrelated letters making up nonexistent words.

But the Jailer did not have to pretend to write the letter for Faldoni. An entire day and a night went by, and during that time the prisoner started the letter in his mind a hundred times, and no matter how hard he tried he could not complete the first sentence. It is not hard to understand his problem; he felt he had to accomplish something with his letter. But what was there to accomplish? He could see very clearly that nothing he might say would alter his fate.

Being unable to write a letter resulted in Faldoni losing interest in learning to write and so he inevitably turned his attention to what he should have been dong all along; painting pictures. He had only the walls of his cell to use as his canvas, and he decided to use his one remaining wall that was still blank, to paint one large work.

This last painting of his was not going to be a series of little portrait heads as he had been working on all along. His new work was going to be one big image covering the entire remaining wall. He wanted to paint a picture that would sum up all of his feelings and ideas about life. He wanted do a painting that would make anyone who would see it later feel how tragic his situation was, how wrong his fate, how great his paintings might have been if only he could live a few more years. In short, there was nothing you could name that Faldoni did not want to put into his painting. When it was finished the viewer was going to see truth and falsehood, joy and sorrow, love and hate, and everything else of importance you might name.

This unfortunately was not an easy task.

RICHARD BRITELL: FROM THE BLOG NO CURE FOR THE MEDIEVAL MIND

THE ARTFUL MIND APRIL 2019 • 41

FICTION

The Natural World Judy Berg Photograph by Carl Berg

It was getting on towards the end of October, and Jed knew that he and Natalie had to move inside.

They had slept side by side, under the canopy of thick Norwegian Pine just next to the cabin from early May until now, but it was time. Last night was the second one to dip down below freezing, and they had awakened to a frost that coated everything so that it really did look like powdered sugar frosting glinting gold in the early morning sun. Natalie stood by the door, reluctant to exchange the crisp freshness of the outdoors for the dark shelter of the cabin. But, a nudge from Jed led to a searching look from her big dark eyes, as she bowed her head and stepped gingerly over the door rise into the single room that served as kitchen, bedroom, and sitting room.

Jed busied himself making a fire in the big black stove, with three burners for cooking. Natalie stood at some distance, eyeing Jed as he moved about stoking the fire and measuring out coffee from the Maxwell House tin. He sniffed it just to make sure that it still smelled like coffee, then measured some out before going back out to the pump to fill the tin pot with water. When Natalie bounded out after him, Jed stopped, turned around, looked at her, eyes filled with love, and said: “It’s okay, Nat, I’m just going out for water. You need to get used to being in the cabin, since that’s where we will need to be sleeping until Spring. I know it’s hard to get used to, but we will be together, and that’s what counts.” Natalie lowered her head, waiting while he filled the pot, and then followed him back inside.

Jed toasted some bread on the stove, buttered it, and slathered it with the last jar of jam he’d made in August from the wild blackberries that grew along the driveway. He called it a driveway, although no one would ever know it was there. And that was just how he liked it. He’d been living off the grid for a couple of years now, by the tree line across from what used to be his Aunt Lina’s house.

Now, the house was abandoned except for the squir42 • APRIL 2019 THE ARTFUL MIND

rels, bats, and who knew what else, that had claimed it as their own. Sure, he could have lived there, but it was too much house for him, and he couldn’t spend much time inside without hearing hymns endlessly looping in his head, hymns that Aunt Lina had listened to all day on a local radio station. He guessed he heard them because he missed her so much, and it was a way of feeling that maybe she was in the kitchen, or something, not gone forever like she really was. She had been his lifeline ever since his parents had been killed in that awful accident when he was five years old. They had taken their brand new midnight blue buick out for a spin and never came back. Aunt Lina told him later that the guy driving the semi had been on the road for eighteen hours without a break.

The cabin across the road was the perfect solution, and since he was her sole survivor, the few thousand dollars she had stashed away down in the cupboard under the cast iron skillet was enough to keep him going for awhile. She had told him where to find it just before she died.

While clutching his hand in hers, holding on for dear life, she told him that everything there was now his, that it comforted her to know that he would live on in her place. But, he’d already had his eye on the cabin. It had started out as a deer blind, where Uncle Ralph used to go to hunt, but gradually his uncle had enclosed it, and made it a place to go to get away from the hymns, to smoke his cigars, and just be private when he wanted to be. Well, it suited Jed just fine. He had moved a bed, some blankets, and pots and pans from the house, to cosy it up and make it liveable. Without electricity he couldn’t have a refrigerator, but he didn’t keep much food around.

When the weather was hot, there was always McDonald’s and the pizzeria, and in the cooler weather, his fridge was right outside his door in a locked wooden box to keep the animals out.

Jed’s privacy was even more important to

him than it was to Uncle Ralph, not just a sometime thing. He had let the weeds and bushes grow up in front of the cabin, and since it backed up against the forest, no one could even tell that someone lived there. His old Chevy pickup was small enough to hide, along with him and the cabin, not one of those big, fancy pickups that could carry a whole family, and make a real statement. The only problem with this arrangement was the intense and excruciating loneliness that just seemed to get worse over time.

He had thought that he would get used to it, but it had gripped him and wouldn’t let go.

That is, until Natalie showed up.

Jed guessed that it was his time in Iraq that led him to give up on people, except for Aunt Lina, who never let him down. He had watched buddies get blown up by IED’s, children get shot in crossfire, and never could figure out to his satisfaction just why he was there. There seemed to be so many different sides to the story, and after Saddam got what they said he deserved, even the Iraqi people couldn’t seem to figure out who would best lead them out of the mess they were in. He just started to feel hopeless about human beings ever being able to work together for something good. They sure knew how to destroy a place, and kill people, but when it came to putting it back together again, they always found different things to fight about. Hopeless! That’s what he had come to, and that’s why he made the decision to live out his life alone. That way, if anything went wrong, he’d only have himself to blame. No one to turn the gun on except himself. He took comfort in this arrangement, except for the damned loneliness.

He’d started thinking about the gun as a way out of the misery, and then she showed up. He had fallen asleep the night before to the chirping song of April’s peepers. Living the way he did, in a world full of natural sights, sounds, smells, he was never bored. Each month nature gifted him with a new batch of sensations free of human tinkering.

The peepers’ chorus meant that ramps would soon be popping up in the woods. He had first seen her foraging for something choice to eat, across the road, next to Aunt Lina’s barn. She had looked up, sensing his presence. He didn’t say anything right away, didn’t want to scare her off. She looked straight at him, their eyes locking for a couple of minutes, then she had scooted away, not sure of his intent. The next morning she was out there again, and this time just continued foraging, looking up every now and then, to keep an eye on him as he silently watched her. In the days that followed, she came closer, and stayed longer, and finally, he began talking to her in the kindest, gentlest voice he could manage. This wasn’t really very hard, because his feelings toward her couldn’t have been kinder, more gentle, as she was a beautiful embodiment of all that he loved about the natural world.

It took close to two weeks of gazing, talking, moving ever closer to each other, before they stood face to face. He had extended his hand, and felt a thrill of electricity in his whole being when her cool, moist nose touched the tips of his fingers. Their eyes met when she lifted her head, and the warm Spring breeze that suddenly wafted up, bearing the scents of honeysuckle and wild rose was, for sure, affirming the natural goodness and rightness of this union. In that moment, Jed felt wedded, as much as he thought he ever would. Of course, not in the traditional sense. But, he felt wedded to the whole natural world as it existed without human interference.

Sure, he was human, but he had control over his actions, while he had no control over the actions of any other human. In his small patch of world, he could make sure to do the right thing. And, if he failed, he could take himself out.

He called her Natalie, because he wanted to give her a name, and she deserved a name. The choice was easy. He’d always liked the name, and it suited her. Other than daily trips to forage for the food that was abundantly available all around, Natalie had stayed close, following him around as he busied himself about the place.

The late October chill in the air was matched by an anxious chill in his heart. It wouldn’t be long before hunting season would be upon them, and the crack of rifles in the early morning air signaled that their woods, where Natalie foraged, held death as well as food. Of course, he couldn’t keep her inside, and he cursed himself for not building an enclosure when he still could. So, he determined that he would not let her out of his sight during the whole three weeks when the hunters claimed the woods.

He would follow her, dressed in bright orange, and if any hunter picked her out in his sights, he’d have to take him, too.

The chill in his chest grew colder along with the outdoor air. Opening day dawned mild and sunny, and he already heard multiple cracks of rifles in the woods, which he knew would be filled with hunters, both careful and careless. The worst were those hunters up from the city that would shoot first and look later. He took as long as he could, making and eating his coffee and toast, while Natalie stood

by the door, clearly anxious to go out and feed herself. He talked to her gently, hoping there was some way she could understand why he was putting off leaving the safety of the cabin as long as he could.

When she started snorting, and pawing the floor with her hoof, he knew that her animal persistence and determination meant that they had to go. That’s what he loved about animals, the lack of deception, the pure physical need that trumped everything else. It was both how they survived, and how they could become entrapped and die. Life, and then death, without all the fuss in between.

He downed the last gulp of coffee, and followed Natalie out the door. They stood for a moment in the unusual November warmth. He thought that maybe she was picking up on his reluctance to leave this margin of safety and responding in kind. He thought about Iraq, and how each time he had to leave his margin of safety, he wondered if he would ever return. But now, here, it wasn’t just him. In fact, he was more worried for her; no one would be gunning for him. He took a step forward, and Natalie seemed to take this as a sign that all was safe, and she bounded out into the woods. Jed had a hard time keeping up with her, but he was determined to not let her out of his sight. She stopped and did her business a few steps in front of him, then began to look for anything still green and tender enough to eat, while Jed rested himself and his gun against a tree.

He saw him slowly approaching, about fifty feet away, a young man, not much more than a boy, and certainly not over twenty. He thought of the young men he had served with in Iraq, and for a moment, lost his sense of fear for Natalie, unable to see this young man as a threat to her life. When the young man raised his gun, Natalie clearly in his sights, Jed snapped to in an instant. He stepped out from behind the tree, so the hunter would see him, and raised his gun, pointing it straight at him. His heart was beating so fast he could hardly breathe, and the weeks of cold anxiety melted in the sudden heat of facing the very danger he had feared, now a reality. In fact, it was almost a relief. No more fearing and waiting.

The young man, so surprised to see Jed, almost lost his balance as he lowered his gun and hollered: “What the hell?!” Before he knew what he was saying, Jed blurted out, “Leave her alone! She’s mine!” in response. “Well, if she’s yours, why didn’t you shoot her?” the young man yelled as he took a couple of steps forward. “That’s none of your business, and stay right where you are,” yelled Jed. The young man, stopped and shook his head as he said, “Well, I’ll be damned!” When he took another step forward toward Jed and Natalie, Jed hollered out, “Stop, just turn around and go back the way you came. She’s my doe, and that’s all you need to know.” The young man turned around and walked away, stopping every few steps to turn and look at the strange couple standing still in the woods, while shaking his uncomprehending head.

Later that night, warmed by the fire in the stove, Jed and Natalie lay side by side on the mattress that Jed had dragged by the fire for warmth. The

wind had turned in the afternoon, bringing cold northern air, and even a few flurries. Jed spooned around Natalie’s back, buried his nose in the coarse, cool hair of her shoulder, and breathed in deeply the smell of the whole good, wild world not yet ruined by his kind. His love for this animal was spiritual, not carnal. He was all man, with a man’s desires, but he’d had enough of trying to make it work with women. He’d start to get close with someone, and then she would want to make him over to be more to her liking, and he just felt that he could never trust someone to love him unconditionally, as he was. So, he had stopped trying, and had a memory or two that could help him satisfy his manly needs without the guaranteed pain involved in trying to make it work with a woman.

Jed woke suddenly from a dream, a dream where he was a big buck, an eight-pointer, leading his herd of does and young bucks through the woods, while gunshot cracked all around them. But the gunshot in the dream turned out to be real, and so was the sound of Natalie, scraping her foot on the floor by the door, snorting impatiently to go out. He got up from the mattress, and walked half asleep to the door where he saw a six-pointer about ten feet into the woods staring at Natalie behind the door. He awakened fully to a feeling that started in the pit of his stomach, a feeling that made him laugh, a funny kind of gurgling laugh that was so foreign to him, so out of his control, that it seemed to come from somewhere else. His eyes stayed dry while a pit of grief opened up inside him, and came pouring out so fast and strong that he couldn’t have stopped it if he tried.

In fact, it so possessed him that he felt like grief was the whole of him.

Natalie went wild with terror, pounding the floor with her hoof and pushing against the door with her body, trying to get out of the cabin. Jed felt the warmth of love and pity mix in with the grief, and ran without thinking to the door to free her from her terror of a Jed she had never seen. He watched as she ran off into the woods, following the six-pointer, then slumped in the chair at the table, weakened by the torrent of feelings that possessed him.

He must have sat there, in that same position for hours, until gradually he became aware of an almost cleansing feeling of relief. He had no control over anything, not the natural world, the unnatural world, none of it. He couldn’t keep the bad out, not matter how hard he tried. He got up and went over to the coffee can, sniffed it, then took the pot out to pump some water. Snow was drifting down in huge, wet flakes. Back inside, he lit the fire, and waited for the coffee. Sitting down in the chair, he saw his gun propped against the wall. A flood of warm relief filled him, along with the smell of coffee, and the sound of gunfire back in the woods. He would just have to go it alone.

- Judy Berg

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